AN: So, I'm not Marvel. I don't have the heart to torture everyone with an uber long hiatus. These past couple days have been long enough, right? And, you know, I'm a human. A very very busy human. I worked 11 hours today, and OMT it sucked. But anyways, I finally have a bit of motivation so I'm writing again for the first time in days, and so I figured I would update for you guys! We're getting off the bus a bit in this chapter, so enjoy Hike!

"Wheels down in ten" May announced over the PA. Ward groaned but he and Skye emerged from the closet less than 2 minutes later anyways. Skye slapped Grant's butt playfully as she walked past him, disappearing into her bunk a moment later. When she emerged as the bus touched down, she was wearing stretchy black skinny jeans over a pair of combat boots and a black, form fitting tee shirt. Her hair (which had been in disarray a moment ago, from her stint in the broom cupboard) was pulled into a tight ponytail and she wore a pair of mirrored sunglasses that obscured her eyes. She truly looked like an agent.

As soon as the plane was shut down, May came and found her.

"Let's move, Tian" May ordered. Skye was puzzled, but quickly grabbed her laptop bag and followed after her. When they were in the jeep on their way to the forest they were going to search, Skye brought it up.

"What did you call me back there?" she asked as May drove.

"Tian" she answered. "It means sky, but it's also the word for heaven. I thought it suited you, partly because of your name, but also because of what I see in you. You have a presence that's almost ethereal. Cosmic. Like you're greater than this world."

"I love it" Skye grinned as her cheeks reddened. Mel gave a small, barely-there smile before putting on her own sunglasses and pressing down the accelerator.

The arrived at the trail head about 20 minutes later. There was a "Trail Closed" sign blocking off the entrance, but May and Skye quickly climbed over it. Skye had left her laptop bag in the jeep; instead, she and Mel both wore backpacks filled with power food and water bottles. The trail was wide enough to walk side by side at first but eventually narrowed down, forcing them to walk single file. May indicated that Skye should go first, so she did. After a couple minutes of walking in silence, Skye brought up a question she'd been meaning to ask.

"Hey May? Where'd you get that badass outfit? Like, that thing is leather and yet you still have full mobility in it, it seems to breathe pretty well, and you look killer in it! I want one! I know that S.H.I.E.L.D technically doesn't exist anymore and stuff, but can I still get one of those suits?" There was no answer. "May?" Skye turned around and found the trail behind her empty. Instantly her demeanor changed and she pulled her night-night pistol out from the back of her pants. Holding it at the ready, she walked back down the trail in the direction she'd come from. The ground was fairly dry, but she was still able to make out her own footprints in the dirt. It didn't take long for her to reach the spot where another pair of footsteps that had been alongside her own veered off the path and into the woods. There were a few scuff marks around too, and Skye peered into the trees cautiously. All of a sudden, something crashed into her, knocking the wind out of her lungs and causing her to fall to the ground. She was only down for a moment before rolling over to aim her weapon at the offender. As soon as she registered who it was, she huffed and clicked the safety back on the gun.

"It took you nearly five minutes to notice I was gone, Skye" May lectured. "And even when you did, when you were on your guard, you still didn't expand your awareness. You must always-"

"Be aware of my surroundings." Skye finished May's sentence for her, overlapping her words over the older woman's.

"Yes."

Skye opened her mouth to reply, to tell her trainer that she had been paying attention to her surroundings and that it wasn't her fault that May was incredibly sneaky, but May's hand on her mouth cut her off.

"Listen" Melinda breathed. Skye rolled her eyes but did as she was told. It took a moment for her to hear the nearly imperceptible sound, but when she did she realized what had Mel so freaked out. It was far off, but getting closer every moment- the sound of several very large things moving towards them. Once May pointed it out, Skye was actually surprised that she hadn't noticed it sooner. The creatures were not being quiet by any means, and it was only the distance that had kept the sound of their travel from Skye's ears.

"What do we do?" she mumbled around Melinda's hand. May quickly removed the appendage and motioned with her hand that Skye should follow her. They hurried down the path for a couple minutes before May called a halt. The noise was louder now, the sound would have been impossible to miss even if Skye hadn't already been savvy to it. Mel proceeded to lead the way off the path… The two female agents crept through the trees, with Skye walking but inches behind May. She nearly bumped into the older woman when May suddenly stopped and grabbed Skye's arm to pull her down to a crouch. They hid in a bush and a moment later the subjects came into view.

The creatures were massive, each one well over 15 feet tall. They were lanky creatures, and every inch of their dark, armor-like skin was covered in sharp edges. Although they didn't move stealthily by any means, all four of them were graceful and fluid. Each movement they made was clearly deliberate, from the steps they took down to the blink of one of their piercing violet eyes.

Skye's breath started coming in shallower gasps, but Mel laid a gentle hand on her knee and the girl settled down. The hand that wasn't offering moral support was occupied with a small gadget. It bore some resemblance to a digital camera, but had too many extra bits to be that. Unfortunately Skye was too busy trying to keep breathing to worry about figuring it out. When the creatures were out of sight, May stood back up and led the way back to the jeep.

"We're not going to stop them?" Skye asked after a few minutes of walking in stunned silence.

"Why should we?" May replied. "They aren't moving towards civilization, and how would we even go about stopping them in the first place? I doubt that night-night gun would do much on one of those. No, this was a recon mission. We got what we were looking for" she said as she held up the device she'd been using earlier.

"Yeah, what is that thing?"

"No clue. Fitz just told me to point it at the creatures and press this button. It probably collects biological data and other specs or something. I don't worry what it does, I just do as I'm told with tech like this."

By that time they had reached the Jeep so Skye just shook her head and climbed into the passenger seat.

AN: So you know what I'm going to say. Reviews- I like them. And I'm not going to hold the next chapter hostage like I did the first couple chapters, but I promise that if I get 15 reviews I will update within 24 hours of the 15th review. Because I am so busy it's harder for me to update, so I need encouragement to push myself to post! Reviews are really the only way I know how much this means to you, and that is the thing that keeps me going, even when I'd rather just fall into bed and collapse at the end of the day. So yeah. Anyways, wish me luck this week, cause work is going to be INSANE for a couple days. Love you guys! 3