Previously: Coulson and the team defeated John Garrett in Disney World, with Ward delivering the final blow. They found Nick Fury being held on their BUS, which they have taken back, but Skye is still missing in action. Well, MIA for them. We know Skye chose to hop in a car with Agent Wolfe, believed dead by the rest of the team, after waking up clueless in an abandoned carnival.
Chapter Two:
"So, the first mission didn't really pan out. Thank god this one did. It really is a shame about the loss of Agent Wolfe, but damn, you've got one hell of a good team, Coulson."
"Thank you, sir. It'll be better once we have all of us back together again though."
"Ah that's right; the girl."
Coulson felt good to be back on the BUS. He felt good having everyone back on the BUS, except one person's absence was making it feel much more empty than it should.
Coulson nodded. "Agent Skye was captured by Hydra and now is at an unknown location."
Despite the fact that the conversation was mainly being held between Fury and Coulson, all who made it out of Disney World were present: Fitzsimmons, May, Triplett, Koenig… even Ward, begrudgingly to Coulson. The man was currently shackled and present because he may have useful information, but Coulson would feel better once he was locked up until they really decided what to do with him.
"Well Coulson, I'm going to need your help. You say some guy juiced with Gravitonium came flying through the air towards you?"
"Looked more like he was made of Gravitonium," corrected Coulson.
"Actually, he's a highly revered physicist that was thought to be dead," interjected Simmons, smiling awkwardly when Fury turned his already exasperated face to look at her.
"Right," continued Fury. "I'm gonna need you on this Coulson. You and your team… or at least, most of them," he added after eyeing Ward warily.
"Yes sir, but… I need to have resources working on finding our missing agent, too."
"This should be top priority Coulson. We have no idea what kind of a threat this guy is. And I told you to stop calling me sir."
"Yes but si- but, we may not know what the threat of this man is but we know Skye's in danger." Coulson paused, before adding, "And well… she may also be a danger."
Coulson took a moment to gauge everyone's reactions.
Fitzsimmons shared a look of confusion. Triplett looked intrigued. May took a deep breath. Ward didn't move a muscle.
"What the hell does that mean?" asked Fury.
"Skye's an 084."
"An object of unknown origin? The only living thing I've known to be one of those was a baby girl over twenty years ago…" Fury's one good eye bulged as realization dawned upon his face. "Well damn."
"I know."
"Why haven't I been told this before?" scolded Fury. "That someone on your team may not be human?"
"We were keeping it quiet until we found out more facts… maybe that was the wrong choice, I don't know. But I do know that Hydra was trying to extract something out of her. Maybe try to make some sort of powers manifest."
"Hah," the nervous breath of a laugh burst through Simmons' lips. "Skye? Have powers? That's absurd!"
Fitz shook his head. "Now wait, let's think about this. She did seem to always win at Battleship…" he mused. "Which given that it's a game of chance perhaps means that she had some sort of-"
"Way to manipulate probability in her favor?" Simmons continued for him. "Or perhaps some sort of X-ray vision?"
"Skye does not have X-ray vision," said May. "She didn't know anything about her status, and if she had something as obvious as that she would have come to us."
"You knew?" asked Simmons.
May shrugged. "I was helping Skye look into her parents and that's what we found out."
"So the girl's not human?" said Trip. "That's a little… insane."
"More like out of this world," Fitz put in jollily.
"Oh Fitz, now's really not the time," said Simmons.
"Back on the topic," Coulson said pointedly. "Finding Skye may be more of a priority than we know. I don't know how deep Hydra goes, but if they still have her, she could be used as a weapon."
Fury considered a moment, hands on his hips before he finally sighed. "Alright, sounds like it's pretty important you find your missing agent. I suppose I'll just have to enlist Agent Hill and Koenig to find Hall."
"Guess so."
"And Coulson?"
"Yes sir?
"Try not to lose this ride again."
Coulson smiled. "I'll do my best, sir."
"Alright, let me see if I got all this right," said Skye, still processing an abundant amount of information she'd just been given. "We're in Ohio."
"Yes." (So much for her 'near the coast' theory. She never even considered beach water to be a lake.)
"And you're a SHIELD agent…"
"Mmhm."
"And you've seen Coulson and my team, but you can't take me to them because they're deep undercover?"
Agent Wolfe nodded. "These people who have you may not be Hydra, but you're still on Hydra's radar. We have to lay low before we contact the team."
Skye stared out the window at the endless green that Ohio seemed to be as she tried to make sense of the current situation. Her brain didn't want to cooperate; it still had to many questions to ask.
"Who was the boss you guys were talking about before?"
Wolfe shook his head with a rueful air, shrugging as his hands remained on the steering wheel. "Honestly, I don't know. I only talked to the guy on the phone. Orders were clear: when the package woke, bring it to the fun house."
So whoever wanted her was the one making all that noise... seemed like a lot of trouble to hire a bunch of guys to bring her somewhere so close. But hey, what did Skye know about evil villains' plans? Assuming this guy was evil. Crazy scientist could also be on the list of possibilities.
"How did you even know where I was?" asked Skye. "I mean you obviously got in contact with this dude somehow."
"I have an informant involved with Hydra. He got wind of you being sold and told me where you were heading. Though he didn't have much more information about the buyers."
Buyers. Sold. No wonder they called her cargo.
Skye was used to being moved around. It came with the territory of being an orphan, a foster kid. When they don't want you they give you away.
But when it was found out she was an 084, suddenly everyone wanted her. Wanted to know what she was, wanted to use her blood.
Orphan. Object. Cargo. When was she going to just be a person? Well, if she really was an alien, she supposed the answer to that was actually… never.
"Stop the car," she told him.
"We should really put as much distance-"
"Look, I don't know you. I don't even know where the hell we're going, but I know I want you to stop the damn car!"
The man pulled the car over on the dark side street they'd been riding along. It was a country road, so there weren't many lights and rarely other people.
Skye got out of the SUV, hugging herself in the cold night. She even bounced a bit to keep her uncovered legs warm. Wolfe got out of the car, watching her rub her hands up and down her arms when she started to take a few steps away from the vehicle.
"Skye, what are you doing?"
"I don't know!" she said fiercely, taking a breath of the fresh air. Or not so fresh; it smelled like some kind of animal poop. Cows, maybe?
"You can't just walk around in the middle of the night. You look like you escaped from a hospital."
"Tell me where we're going," Skye demanded.
"I'm not exactly sure, we just need to get out of the vicinity."
"See, that's not a normal answer. I need a normal answer. People don't just drive all random, they have a destination!"
The agent nodded. "Ok. So what do you want the destination to be?"
Skye pondered for a moment, letting herself relax as it sunk in that he was letting her make a decision.
"Wal-Mart," she decided, prompting a surprised look out of the man. "If I've really been out for days like you said, these clothes are probably pretty disgusting. And honestly, medical gown really isn't exactly my cup of tea anyway."
"Alright, I think we can do that," he answered in an overly cheery tone. He was probably trying to take her edge away. She knew she was being cranky, but her mind justified the fact that she was having a bad attitude was because of her currently very crappy week. "You want to be driver, or navigator?"
Skye was starting to make the decision that she liked this guy. He really seemed like he truly cared about her, and not just in an "I want to see that this agent home" kind of way. Like he really cared about her wants as a person. Which was weird since they'd just met, but she supposed that meant he must just be that nice to everyone he encounters.
"Driver, please," Skye told him, wanting to feel herself have some semblance of control. Of course, the navigator was the one telling her where to go so she may have less control than she was alluded to, but being in charge of the vehicle would feel good.
He smiled. "Sounds like a plan."
They got into their respective seats, Skye cherishing the feeling of her hands on a steering wheel. She realized she hadn't driven herself anywhere in months. When she got back to the BUS, she needed to take her van out for an overdue joy ride.
Wolfe popped open the glove compartment. It held a few items, one of which was a gun. But the item that Wolfe reached for was a folded up pamphlet.
"No GPS, huh?" said Skye, staring at the map of Ohio.
"It's traceable. I'd think you would know that, young lady. Isn't your specialty computer science?"
"Yes, and therefore I get a little clingy to my satellites and electronics stuff," she said brazenly, somewhat offended. Though he'd said the comment jokingly enough. "Seriously, I don't think my hands have ever gone this long without touching a keyboard."
Wolfe laughed. "Well, I hate to break it to you kiddo, but you're stuck without it for a couple days."
"I get it," Skye pouted as she started the car. "You want to take all my fun away. So, which way, Mr. Navigator?"
"Looks like we should head east."
Skye saluted, fairly over-dramatically. "Yes, sir."
A/n: Because I can't help myself I'm updating again. So excited for tonight! (T-Minus 8 Hours btw)
Decision time! Want a Ward/Coulson talking chapter next, or perhaps see some action with Skye? You're going to get both it's just which one do you want to see first.