Previously: Coulson and the field agents have just run into Bobbi Morse. She managed to get Graviton out of play for a little while, and he's lying dormant somewhere in the city. Meanwhile, the rest of the team are on their way over with the machine that can take him out for good. Fitzsimmons has shared a kiss (they're saving discussion of it for later though) and Skye is still getting used to her powers and adjusting to her father.
Chapter Forty Two
"What the hell was that?" shouted Hunter from the driver's seat of the van. "Did Skye short out the lights again?"
"No!" she said indignantly, glancing sheepishly at Fitzsimmons beside her. "I think that was like… a one time thing."
"What's going on then?" asked Fitz. "Because the fact that the city seems to be about eighty percent darker than any industrialized area in Europe should be-"
"-means we can assume the other twenty percent are using backup generators, but something must have obstructed the main power source!" finished Jemma.
She flashed a smile at Fitz, just at the glee of having him back and that they were finishing each other's sentences again. But there was something else there too now. Like a spark, or electricity.
Maybe it was the way he surreptitiously held onto her hand.
"Satellites are down too," Skye said as she typed, furiously trying to get at least the GPS back up. "Not to mention every program I had running just glorked itself."
"Glorked?" muttered Simmons skeptically.
"Please try to use actual English, Skye," Fitz suggested, and Skye looked quite offended as her mouth popped open involuntarily.
"You do realize the irony of saying that statement, right?" she asked. Fitzsimmons shared a look. "When you guys get into science mode, you two babble on like… like chattering chimpanzees!"
"Oh I would like a chimpanzee…" mumbled Fitz. "Prefer a Capuchin though-"
"Well, we are using actual words!" Simmons pointed out as she stopped Fitz short. His talks about primates could go on for a bit. "Words found in the dictionary."
"It's in the dictionary!" Skye defended. "It's in the… the Hacker's Jargon Dictionary of… Hackishness!"
Simmons scoffed. "Oh, come on Skye. Now you're just being silly."
"Nah, I just have hackitude." Skye squinted. "Which… isn't actually how you really use that word-"
"That's actually jargon?" exclaimed Fitz.
"Ok kids, how about we focus," said Wolfe, drawing seriousness back to the mood. Though he still look amused. And cheery, seeming to be his usual. Jemma liked that aspect about him.
"Yes children," stressed Hunter. "Do try to concentrate."
"Don't call us children," Skye spat.
Hunter held his hand out to gesture to Wolfe in the passenger seat. "He did!"
"Yeah, in a nice way," Skye snickered.
"And he's significantly older than us," said Simmons.
"So am I!" protested Hunter.
"Not significantly, just older," said Fitz.
"And so not in maturity levels…" mumbled Skye.
"Really?" Mack said out of the blue, having been sitting there listening. Simmons found herself feeling near embarrassed. "Can you even hear yourselves right now?"
"Got to keep it light when in the field, mate," said Hunter, obviously not sharing Simmons' abashed feelings. "Otherwise the stress will kill ya every time. And in this occupation, that actually could be taken literally."
"No it can't, Hunter," Jemma said. "You can't literally die multiple times."
"I just meant the death part, not all of it. Obviously."
Mack rubbed his hands to his head. "Oh my god…"
"Mack's right," announced Wolfe. "We need to get a plan. Comms are down if satellites are down, so how are we going to rendezvous?"
They took a beat of quiet thought.
"Well we'll just have to look for them physically right?" suggested Hunter. "We know the approximate location."
"We don't have a clue what caused the power outage though," said Fitz.
"Surely it's on the news right? I can look it up on my phone even-"
"No satellites, Hunter…" Skye sighed.
"Oh. Right." He actually did seem mildly embarrassed by that. Well, maybe if he thought before he spoke… Simmons did think Hunter could be smart. He just didn't often try showing it. "Well, physically it is then. Who's going to hoof it with me?"
"Not me!" exclaimed Skye, a strained smile on her face. Jemma grinned at her from across Fitz, lightened by her enthusiasm.
"Do I really bug you that much sweetheart?" asked Hunter. "Because I could try to tone down the sarcasm, at least a bit."
"It's not because of you, Self-Absorbed Guy," Skye informed. "If the satellites come back online, Wolfe told me I could help with the trajectory of the weapon."
"Ah, alright I get it. One question though: When are you going to start calling him dad?" Hunter said, tilting his head backwards to get a look at the hacker.
Skye glared.
"Hunter..." warned Wolfe.
"Are you just trying to feed the fire?" asked Mack.
"I was just curious! Right, so who's coming with me when we get there?"
"At least Mack and I have to go in order to calibrate the weapon if we can't get the satellites back up," said Wolfe. "And Agents Fitz and Simmons should probably stay with Skye in the van."
"We can help with communications if they power comes back," said Simmons cheerily. She felt like she could run comms even better than she had in the past.
Wolfe looked apprehensive though. "I feel like we should leave a field agent with them. None of them have combat training."
Skye's father looked at Hunter expectantly. "What, me? Babysitting again!"
Simmons huffed. "And again, we're not children!"
"Do you have a better word for it?" asked Hunter.
"Actually the correct word would be monitoring…" mumbled Fitz, but Hunter took no notice.
"I mean it was fine before when they were off on some crazy gambit but not when we're about to beat the bad guys!"
"We'll be fine on our own," said Skye decidedly. "We're just sitting in a van, and honestly, I'd probably get more work done without having to listen to that guy's griping."
"You're all sure?" Wolfe asked quietly, craning his head backwards to look at the three of them in the backseat. Jemma and Skye nodded. Fitz just appeared somewhat pensive.
"Yeah, but one time we were alone in a van, we were attacked and drove over the edge of a hill by a woman with a bomb in her eye…" he mused.
"Well that was a completely different circumstance," said Jemma. "With any luck, the Skrulls won't be looking at us if there's a big hubbub going on around the city, and-"
"Like I said, we'll be fine." Skye gave Wolfe a reassuring smile, but he sent her back a rather uncertain one.
"Fantastic," said Hunter. "Now that that's settled we can focus on getting there through this awful traffic. Who knew city-wide evacuation would clog the road so much?"
"Damn, Bobbi Morse," admonished Triplett. The new girl was over to the side, appearing frazzled by whatever was going on with her phone. A few people were still scurrying out of the Colosseum behind her.
"You've heard of her?" asked Ward.
"You haven't?"
Ward scowled. No, he hadn't. But cursory observances of her mere stance and behavior, coupled with her impressive appearance with the gun, not to mention her reputation known by the team… well, it certainly made him think she would be a formidable ally.
She sauntered over to them, still hitting something on her phone.
"I can't get on comms with anyone," she said in a tone of frustration, slightly shaking the device in her hand before poking at one in her ear. "My team are good over there for now, but once we split up, that's it." She turned to look at Coulson. "Fury's had nothing but good things to say about you though, so I'm guessing that shouldn't be a problem."
There was a hint of a question to what was mainly a statement, and Coulson's tone made it sound as though he'd taken it as a challenge.
"It shouldn't," he assured somewhat over-zealously. "We actually have some members of our team bringing a weapon that should be enough to neutralize him. Problem is, it will affect everyone in the vicinity."
Morse's lips formed a line of smugness. "Good thing we started an evacuation then."
Coulson nodded. "Yeah, thanks for taking care of that," he said, not sounding insincere.
"Now the problem is we have no idea where the guy went," Ward noted. "And he's probably going to be pretty pissed off when he comes back."
Morse raised her eyebrows with incredulity. "You saying you wish I didn't save your asses back there?"
"Not at all," he told her defensively. He crossed his arms, and realized quickly that was mirroring the girl's own motions. "I'm saying that he can get the jump on us now. Before he was making a public spectacle, now he's licking his wounds and it will be harder to target him."
"How big of a range does this weapon have?" Bobbi asked. Coulson spoke up.
"Unclear, we'll know more when the rest of the team gets here."
"So I take it this is the meet point? Considering we're just standing around." She gestured around herself.
The team looked at each other; sheepishly and obviously.
"You didn't make a meet point before the power outage, did you." It wasn't a question, and Morse appeared to be harboring a slight feeling of annoyance because of it.
Coulson grinned. It could have been reassuringly, but Ward knew it to be more one made of apprehension. "They have an estimate of where we are," he offered.
She held out her hands, palms forward. "Hey, I'm following you here. Fury said if you tell me to jump, I jump. And no matter how nervous you are about them finding you, you obviously have faith in this team from what I can tell. Well, maybe not him, but…" Her eyes rolled sideways, stopping at Ward, "most of them."
Wait.
"Me?"
"Yeah. You may be abrasive but you brought up some good points, so no one argued with you," she threw out casually. "But they weren't incredibly happy that you were so blunt about it. Even their body language screams uncomfortable, but at the same time trying to deal because you could be worth it to put up with," she added, gesturing around the team.
Ward held still, uncomfortable about being in the spotlight. Not to mention she was hitting the nail on the head pretty dang hard. Morse paced slightly now as she spoke, taking casual steps.
"So you could be the new guy that they haven't seen enough of yet to determine if you're alright or not. But personally, my money's on that you did something to scorn them in the past and you are still trying to rebuild that trust."
Triplett laughed. "Oh, I like you girl," he said, wagging a finger at her. She actually looked exalted, eyes brightening as she chuckled.
"Flattered, really. So, when is this weapon supposed to show?" she asked, trying to get her face back to a serious point.
"Soon," assured May.
"I think you mean now," said a low-toned voice, and everyone turned to see three newcomers.
"Mack?" exclaimed Morse. Clear excitement lit up her face.
"Hey, Bobbi!" He set down the large crate that he was carrying one end of while Wolfe held the other, making room for her to come in for a hug. "Didn't know you'd be at this party."
"Not much of a party," she admonished. "Did you know our target basically qualifies as a supervillan? Or maybe an alien invasion? I mean, I know SHIELD deals with gifteds but this is… intense."
"Yeah." He looked exasperated. "It's nuts."
"You two know each other?" asked Ward skeptically. The woman pointed to the mechanic in what seemed about to be an explanation, but before they got the chance to answer the third figure that had come with them spoke up.
"What. The. Hell." Hunter peeked around Mack's bulking form. When Bobbi caught his eyes, her smile dropped.
"Hunter," she acknowledged. It was somewhat coldly, but there was surprise there.
"I'd say she knows both of them," Trip observed. Ward couldn't help but nod in agreement.
"What the hell is he doing here?" she asked, glancing around herself for an answer. She clearly didn't get one fast enough and her blazing eyes landed back on the mercenary. "Shouldn't you be out doing things on your own, like you said you were better off?"
"Izzy called in a favor," he said simply.
"Oh, since when do you ever help Hartley?"
"I help her! I mean the pay isn't bad either…"
She scoffed. "Of course. You don't really know how to do an actual favor, do you Lance?"
"I've done ten times as many favors for our friends than you ever did for me!"
The girl's mouth popped open with offense. "I did so much for you! I even tried to put a good word in with the big wigs at SHIELD!"
"SHIELD was always your thing, you know I never wanted that!"
Her eyes bulged as she gestured vigorously around herself. "Then what the hell are you doing here?"
"Alright, I think I'm going to cut in here," said Coulson, gesturing a little time out signal as he walked between them.
"Sorry," Bobbi conceded, backing down. "My ex can sometimes bring out the worst in me. Especially when he materializes out of nowhere."
May sighed as she gave Coulson an exasperated glance. She looked to Bobbi. "You two dated?"
"Married, actually," corrected Hunter, and Ward felt actual surprise grace his face.
"Damn," said Triplett, with equal parts astonishment and amusement.
"Ok… wasn't expecting that," admitted Coulson. "Think you two can play nice until we get this kinda big deal of a situation under our belts?"
"I can." Hunter pointed. "No promises about this one."
She scoffed. "Oh of course. Always assuming the worst."
"Well you've certainly never given me a reason to assume any better!"
Her face got red and livid. Ward had seen that look a few times on women he'd known before, and he prepared for the noise of the matter.
But May beat her to it. "You are both grown adults. Why don't you try acting that way?"
The two became shy and abashed as they had before, and Ward wondered if it was just the calm before the storm again.
"Hey!" called yet another voice. "You guys!"
It was Skye.
Ward might have been happy to see her, but he'd honestly hoped she'd stayed back at the BUS when all he saw were the two mercenaries and her father. Now she was out in the open, with Skrulls hunting her. And they'd left her off on her own!
You could say he was peeved.
"What are you doing here?" Wolfe asked as the brunette trailed to a stop in her jogging.
"Wanted to help," she said simply with a shrug.
"Uh, I actually quite vividly remember you saying you wanted to help from the van, on your own, in case the servers came back up," said Hunter.
"Well, they're not up," she protested. "Anyway, I can do that stuff from here."
Ward squinted. "Wouldn't you need your laptop?" he asked, referencing the girl's empty arms.
"Ah… yeah, probably should have brought that." She actually looked slightly embarrassed. "I'm just so psyched I must have forgot it. Seriously, I just want to help."
That was somewhat… idiotic of her. And honestly, it surprised Ward that she wanted to part with the object anyway. She seemed to love to have it around whenever she could and was very protective of it. He'd tried to touch it once. Just to Google something. She'd snatched the thing back quick as she could, donning a raspy voice he didn't think she'd even be capable of making as she proclaimed, "my precious…"
"Skye…" started Coulson.
"Don't send me back, please. I can help! I can do something, I'm sure. Anyway, if the comms come back up I can do that stuff from my phone. Easy peasy."
"You can stay Skye," he decided, looking somewhat overwhelmed. "But make sure you're near a field agent at all times."
"Field agent; got it," she said, seeming only too eager to please. Ward noticed Wolfe get closer to her at the same time his own body twitched to do the same, and he realized that particular order wouldn't be a problem.
Bobbi was trying on her phone again, but looked over to the very few stragglers of the Colosseum now. "Let me get an update to my team," she said. "Maybe they have an inkling of where we can start looking for this guy…"
Coulson nodded and the agent walked away. Hunter clucked his mouth.
"Don't know why you'd ever want help from that one," he said.
"Because she's helpful," Coulson responded. "And I already like her more than you."
Hunter's mouth gaped and Skye chuckled, Ward's head innately turning towards the sound.
"Hey," he said gently.
"Hey yourself," she responded happily. "Power outage is weird, huh?"
"Yeah," Ward agreed. She seemed so cheery. "How's your head?"
"Hm?"
"Your head. You seemed to be having some problems with your new… issue?"
Ward wasn't sure why, but saying powers still seemed ridiculous. Calling the new thing in her life an "issue" probably wasn't much better though. But Skye didn't seem to mind.
"Ah, yes… that." She shook her head as though to clear it. "All better. Feel right as rain."
"Good," he said. She flashed him a radiant smile. "Tell me if it comes back though, alright? This is new, and you shouldn't be trying to hide anything about it."
Her smile faltered, and she glanced slightly around her shoulders. Like someone was watching, which Ward knew to be a nervous tell. She obviously wasn't comfortable even talking about the powers yet.
"Sure," she assured him. "But I really feel fine, so you just be sure to keep your head in the game, ok?"
Smile was back. Skye's snark was back. Just bubbly quipping her. No fidgeting, anxiousness, or pains in her head. And he was glad for that.
Still…
Something told him he should keep a good eye on Skye for a while.
A/n: My favorites to write are actually chapters with lots of dialogue, preferably snarky, so this with all the Bobbi/Hunter and jargon with Skye was fun :) Speaking of that jargon, I did look it up but disclaimer: it's probably totally wrong.