Chapter Three

After an initial shift of interest, Georgio was able to take back control of the conversation. The other scientists were asking me question upon question; each as seeming odd and irrelevant to me. Georgio took me to the side once the buzz died down to have a little 'chat'.

"You enjoy the show?" I mocked.

"Not particularly." I mumbled.

"So answer my question. Why won't you try the serum on me?"

"Because... It's just the luck we've had with these tests. I'm almost certain it will work but I have this feeling. If something did go wrong, I would have that on my shoulders." he explained, though his tone was off. He was lying.

"That's a lie. You've injected this serum mindlessly into other people before, regardless of consequence why the sudden change of heart?" I attacked. Georgio knew he was caught.

"Okay... okay. It's because the decision is not up to me." he lowered his voice to a bare whisper, "The subjects aren't just at random. They're soldiers. S.H.I.E.L.D wants to build a super-powered army."

Suddenly everything in my brain clicked. The Avengers, the Tesseract, Project X. Captain America had been trialled as a super soldier. When they had tried to re-create it again they ended up with Bruce Banner nearly wiping out a city. So rather than focus of physical strength they changed their tactics to mental strength.

"If I was to trial it on you, I would loose my job or worse. Only Fury clears the subjects, most of which are already top class soldiers. You can't even say something to him without arousing suspicion."

I stood in silence accepting his response as the truth. Even his initial lie was valid in it's own way. But it seemed like a right of passage. I had unlocked the key to this drug and I wanted to test it. But there were too many barriers in my way; I couldn't knock them down this time.

"I'm going to alert Fury and ask him for a new test subject ASAP." Paris interrupted. I assumed she had eavesdropped on the whole conversation.

"Okay. I'll tell the others to prepare," Georgio nodded as Paris left us, "You need to go back on duty outside and pretend, to the best of your ability, that you have nothing to do with this."

I didn't argue, hastily making my way outside and up the hall, to where I was supposed to be posted. Within minutes Fury passed me with an agent I had never seen before. Like Georgio's description, he was soldier material. Muscular, tall and looked fairly disciplined. The 'perfect' S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. I peered around the corner to see Fury chatting with Georgio and Paris, the test subject listened closely.

"Once we inject you with the serum you'll be moved to a containment facility to keep and eye on you and too make sure if anything goes wrong you can't harm someone." Paris explained, "Before we begin we need to check your details, official paperwork and all that."

Paris lead the man over to a folder with a name on top of it, most likely his- Stanley Witmore. Once Paris had checked everything was right, they led Stanley back outside into the hall.

"Agent Coulson. We need you to come along and guard the front of the experiment lab while the test goes on then accompany his medical examiners back to his containment cell for observation. Can you do that?" Fury asked, slightly impatiently.

"Absolutely!"

The walk to the experiment lab was tedious – it sat on the other side of the complex – and surprisingly quiet. Georgio was up ahead explaining the procedure to Stanley and Director Fury, while Paris gossiped to her colleagues and I trailed feebly behind, hand on my gun pocket.

Once we arrived I was amazed. The experiment room was definitely in the same league as the Tesseract facility. Similarly the center of the room was the main focus; a lone medical table. Around the table was control boards and monitors to keep an eye on the subjects vitals. Above it had a surveillance room, with comfortable looking lounges.

Stanley was led to the table and stripped down. From no where, straps were pulled out from underneath the table and attached to his arms, legs and waist, pinning him tightly to the table.

"Agent Coulson. We need you to wait outside." Paris instructed, forcefully removing me from the room. I leant against the outside wall, bored. I tried twiddling my thumbs, counting to 100 hundred in my head as fast as I could, but nothing worked. It wasn't until after standing outside for probably an hour that I knew the experiment had started.

Piercing screams escaped the room and I instantly grasped my gun and barged through the door. Ready to aim and fire, instead I saw a writhing man on the table. He must have been Stanley, but over the red swelling and thrashing movements I couldn't be sure. No one asked me to exit, but instead shut the door behind me. I lowered my gun, but kept my hand close by.

After ten minutes the screaming had stopped and the scientists had began to prod and examine the effects of the serum. Georgio looked up at Fury and nodded.

"Agent Coulson, please escort Dr. Rodrigues and Dr. Sanches to the holding wing."

"Which ones are they?" I asked blankly, I didn't know anyone by last names.

"The two you seem to hang around a lot." he said. I gulped, what did I expect though? They wouldn't keep surveillance on a high security project.

"Ahh..." I said walking to go assist 'Dr. Rodrigues' and 'Dr. Sanches'.

Quickly I began to trail behind Georgio and Paris as they wheeled Stanley Witmore back over the other side of the complex.

"So... which one's Rodrigues and which one's Sanches?" I asked humoring myself.

"Georgio Rodrigues," Georgio said pointing to himself, "Paris Sanches."

"Ahh..."

"Why do you ask?" Paris piped up, rather than her usual deafening silence.

"Fury referred to you by your last names. I realized I never asked, was curious."

By the time Witmore was locked inside the containment facility I was pooped. Unfortunately my day wasn't over yet; I still had five hours left of my shift. Everyone else got off early, though each were equipped with beepers link to Stanley Witmore's vitals. If anything should take a turn for the worst those things would beep like crazy. I wandered up and down the halls surrounding until finally I found myself staring out the glass window down onto the actions of the Tesseract holding room. I should have been outside in the hall and it wasn't until a leftover beeper on one of the lab tables began to go off before I wished I had've.

As a side note...now I'm going to randomly recommend you playlists for certain chapters. If you have the Avengers soundtrack, get ready to put it to good use. If not, try youtube. You'll be happily surprised.