A holographic projection of a fiery explosion slowly rewound, reverting into the form of an angry man with glowing veins, cracked and primed for explosion. Agent Coulson walked right up to the holographic image of the man with a frown.

"EXTREMIS. It's new. Completely unstable," Coulson observed.

"Poor man didn't bring an explosive," stated Jemma, underlying the obvious. "And Mike has the same stuff in his system."

"Well, judging by his strength level, a lot more," said Ward.

"So, any minute now, Mike is gonna—" Fitz said imitating an explosion.

"He'll take out anyone within a two-block radius," said Jemma.

Coulson started to walk toward the holotable upstairs, pausing next to Ward and telling him, "Well, you wanted a bomb."

Ten minutes later and Ward was prepping his sniper rifle on the holotable while Coulson was reviewing Mike's gathered personnel file, trying to glean any more understanding from him before the inevitable confrontation. Just as Ward was installing his silencer, Jemma walked in with Fitz trailing behind her.

"Sir? He didn't explode because he was angry," Jemma said before elaborating, "The two are connected. Well, it's kind of a chemical surge, but calming him down will buy him a minute at most. He will detonate within the next few hours."

"Solution?" asked Coulson.

"Isolate him? Get him away from people?" Jemma suggested.

"Or?"

"Put a bullet through his brain," said Fitz. Neither option was good, but they didn't have any time and a lot more people were in danger otherwise.

"If he's dead, this irradiated metabolic process will stop," explained Jemma.

Coulson then looked at Ward, finishing setting up his rifle. They already had the best laid option before them. They had the means and the best sniper this side of the equator. And even though it was the best possible answer, it wasn't the right one.

"You need to come up with a third option," said Coulson firmly. "One that doesn't involve Mike's son losing a father."

"We have a couple of hours at most," said Jemma, not understanding Coulson's refusal to accept the best possible option. As horrible as it was, it was there job to safeguard the populace. From any threat. "There's no way that we could possibly—"

"Don't ever tell me there's no way!" snapped Coulson, surprising Fitz and Jemma. "It's on you. Get it done," he said walking back toward the holotable room.

Fitz retreated back downstairs but Jemma stayed behind.

When Coulson saw her, he paused, "Yes?" he asked, voice still firm.

Jemma almost hesitated but she steeled her nerves. "I finished analyzing Skye's blood."

"And?"

"Its… sort of impossible," she tried to explain.

Coulson crossed his arms now growing a thoughtful look. "How so?"

"Okay, so, have you ever heard of a research paper called The Mu—"

The holotable then pinged. May, Coulson noticed. "Hold that thought," Coulson said to Jemma, answering the call, "May?"

"He took Skye," May's said through labored breaths.

"You're alright?" Coulson asked.

"We'll deal with that later. At length. Right now, we need to figure out where they went."

"Oh dear…" said Jemma far more worried now. In fact, she started to sweat a little on her forehead.

Coulson noticed it right away. "What is it Jemma?"

"Look, I don't know what Skye is," she said almost pained. "But whatever she is, she needs to get back on her medication, immediately."

"Why?" asked Ward, speaking up.

"Whoever gave her that medication, gave it to her with the intention of suppressing something. Her vial of blood. I ran a few tests and when I introduced a protein sample… the glass exploded."

"What?" Coulson said, almost unbelieving.

"The blood— the cells in the blood started to… to reform. It expanded, thus breaking the vial," Jemma explained, as best she could in the simplest terms.

"Reform? Expanded?" Ward repeated. "How?"

"The Mutant Thesis. Homo sapien superior," Jemma stated, as if the answer would make sense to Ward, who just looked more confused.

Coulson had to pipe in. "A debunked theory on the evolution of the human genome written by a professor at Oxford in the 80s."

"So, a crackpot scientist," said Ward.

"Who also graduated from Columbia University and Harvard."

Ward still didn't look impressed, "So a really smart crackpot scientist."

"That's not all," said Coulson looking at Jemma who shared a knowing look. "His thesis… is entirely correct."

"What?"

"They wouldn't mention this in Ops and it isn't exactly public knowledge, but there's a whole class on it at the academy's science division. They're called Mutants," explained Coulson.

"But they're extinct," said Jemma. "Or at least they should be…"

"The last reported sighting was… thirty years ago," added Coulson before switching his priorities. "I still need that third option," he told Jemma who nodded once and hurried back down to the lab. Coulson then looked to Ward, "We need to find Skye and Mike."

Ward nodded in agreement.

Skye drove Mike and his son to Grand Union Station where they could get on the next train out of the city and start a new life. Not exactly a bad idea but it was made abundantly clear to Skye that Mike was rapidly going off the rails. What's worse, whatever was in his body that made him strong was killing him.

Skye could smell it. Like acid burning through iron, Mike's blood was eating him alive, burning through him. She didn't want to know what would happen if he lost it, so she was working as fast as her fingers allowed, hacking the License Bureau's AES protected data stream, erasing every trace of Mike Peterson. But just because Skye was helping Mike escape, didn't mean she was giving up on saving him. So, while the hack for the License Bureau was running, Skye started to hack into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Bus servers with a brute force breach that would immediately alert everyone on the Bus. Now all she had to do was feed them her coordinates and pray that they'd get here in time.

"We'll take the nice lady with us," she heard Mike say to Ace. "We-we, we can't go to the airport, so we'll take the train. And there, she'll help us start over. Make a new life. A better life. Like I always said."

"And what happens after that, Mike?" Skye asked.

"What?" he asked, almost confused about the question. "Like I said… we'll start over."

Skye turned in her chair, looking into Mike's eyes. He looked ragged. Tired and strained but at the same time, over-alert and wired. At his forehead, Skye noticed an orange glow trace his veins. "You can't run forever," she said. "Is that the life you want? Is that the life you want for your son?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Mike said, looking back down to his son. "As long as we're a team… we'll be okay."

Then from outside the van on a megaphone, Agent Coulson spoke to Mike, "Mr. Peterson, good morning. We're not a threat, we're here to help. But you're in danger and we need to take you in."

Mike reeled on Skye, "What did you do?" he accused, his face lightning up with orange light.

Skye didn't falter, "What I had to, Mike. You didn't leave me with any other choice!"

Mike started to pant with anger as he faced the doors to Skye's van.

Skye's eyes widened when she realized—

Mike shot forward and slammed both hands into Skye's van door, launching it off its hinges and sending it flying forward! She just barely saw Coulson and Ward dodge in time as the door flew past them and into the crowd.

Before she knew it, Mike was forcing her out of the van with Ace. She struggled in his grasp, but Mike's overwhelming strength made it impossible to escape. Mike took them both into the train station gunning for the ticket counter.

Skye had to think fast and delay Mike anyway possible.

Then a group of tough looking guys walked past them. It was almost too perfect.

Skye kicked the first guy in the crotch, "You're right, he is a little bitch," mocked Skye, insinuating the comment came from Mike. The poor guy went out like a light and Skye wondered if maybe she kicked him too hard. Regardless, the rest of his group immediately went on the offense and advanced on Mike and her.

"Go on, get her! Get her!" one of them shouted.

Mike finally let go of Skye to shield his son, "Ace, get back," he said as Skye ducked away as the group tried to get to her.

"Man, get out of the way, man!" one shouted trying to get past Mike.

"Come on! Come on, now!" another shouted, managing to get past Mike but inadvertently moving toward his son. Mike didn't hesitate. He grabbed the man and threw him like a bag of garbage sending him flying into a stack of luggage.

The next guy jumped at him, but Mike was faster, slugging him across the face and sending him sprawling backwards on the floor. The third guy went for a straight punch that Mike easily blocked. Forcing him to the ground, Mike grabbed him and threw him against the floor, letting him slide across it and into a few people.

"Ace!" Mike called out to his son, trying to spot him in the crowd but then the last guy slammed a bronze pillar into Mike's back. The pillar bent, and Mike slowly turned to the stunned man, unfazed. In the next moment Mike tossed him into the air, letting him sail over the crowd screaming.

In the chaos, Agents Coulson and Ward arrived and began to evacuate the station. When the crowd parted Coulson saw Mike's son and ushered him toward another police officer. "Hey. Let's get him out of here," Coulson said to the officer.

"Help my daddy," Ace said to Coulson.

"I promise," he said watching the officer take Ace to safety.

"Ace!" Mike called out, still searching for his son.

With Mike distracted, Ward used the moment to ambush him. With a precision kick to the back of his knee, Ward force Mike to fall to the ground, where he then put Mike into a headlock. "Look. The stuff inside you is unstable," Ward tried to warn Mike. "It'll kill you and everyone in here."

"Who's gonna miss us?" Mike seethed, backing up into the glass map sign, smashing Ward into the glass, before throwing him off his back and slamming him into the ground, dazing him! When he looked back up he spotted Skye across the station...

Trying desperately to get a door open and escape, Skye was about to turn around and try to find Coulson and his team before Mike came sailing toward her, landing and grabbing her. Just as he did, a shotgun blast went off, barely missing Skye and Mike. Mike then proceeded to kick in the door and forced Skye to follow him through it.

When May arrived on scene, Coulson gave her directions before helping Ward to his feet.

"We told them to hold fire," Ward said, standing back up and looking in the direction he heard the shotgun fire from.

"I don't think that's us," said Coulson touching his inner ear comm to let May know, "We may have a third party here."

Upstairs on the top floor where Mike had dragged Skye, the super soldier father was desperate to find his son, looking over the crowd and trying to spot him.

Skye forced her arm out of Mike's grip, "You have to stop!" she told him, "These people can help you."

"The men in suits?" They're your buddies, now?" he questioned, growing angrier. "Where'd they take my son?" he demanded, reaching out to grab Skye again.

But Skye was already getting tired of being grabbed for the umpteenth time. She jumped back to avoid Mike's hand. "Seriously, Mike," she said. "They just want to help. Whatever's inside you is not okay, I can smell it, it's like a poison or-or—"

Then Mike looked past her and he reacted suddenly and held up his arm and jacket just before a shotgun shell impacted him, sending him tumbling over the railing and falling into the middle of Grand Union Station.

Skye looked up at the cop in shock. But before she could register what was happening, he aimed the gun at her.

And something clicked in Skye. It wasn't a rush of adrenaline or a surge of fear. It was something angrier, something vengeful. Something primal. Suddenly Skye was seeing nothing but the man in front of her. She could feel her jaw clench and her fingers curl into fists so tight they started to shake. This man was a threat to her and he had to be gone. Skye ran at the cop.

Then he pulled the trigger.

The shotgun shell ripped apart Skye's face, sending flesh and blood flying back. Skye instantly collapsed onto the ground, unmoving.

Then May arrived having raced up the steps after hearing the first gunshot. When she saw Skye splayed out on the ground and the disguised assailant with a shotgun, her eyes turned hard.

May advanced on the fake cop just as he was about to load in a pair of new shells, but then he stopped suddenly, flinching violently as two metal blades protruded from his chest. May froze in surprise. The cop gurgled up a pool of blood, the life leaving his eyes as he fell to his knees and collapsed on the ground.

And standing behind him was Skye, half her face missing, her right eye gone, and exposing a metal skull. She wasn't looking at May, only at the man she had just skewered. May could see where the blades came from now. Two long metal blades extended out from her knuckles. May watched in mild horror as they retracted back into her fist.

"Skye…" May whispered.

Skye's head jerked in the direction of May, putting her instantly on the defensive. Every instinct in the seasoned agent told her that she wasn't looking at a young girl anymore, but some kind of animal instead. Then her face started to heal. Her skin began to stitch itself back together. May could see muscle underneath reform over the metal skull, and she watched in revulsion as her eyeball regrew and the rest of her skin fully reformed back to normal.

Then a look of utter exhaustion passed over Skye's face and she collapsed on the ground.