"We're going to have more problems, Agent Coulson. There's no way they sent just her to clear however many rooms, right? And would they have sent her without some kind of insurance policy? A fail safe." Rachel mentioned, watching as they unloaded the woman from the Osprey onto a gurney.
"You're right. But as antiquated as it is they're fans of cyanide teeth. She'll have no memory of how to use it and we'll remove it immediately. The bigger concern is other potential agents that may have done the rooms on other floors. We're already in contact with hotel staff and anyone who may or may not have come in to work today." He said, waiting as Quinn's information was stored in a tablet before she was handed a name tag.
"I'm going to have to give her memories. I'm not sure what the protocol or whatever is under these circumstances, but she can't continue on being thirty something and only having memories leading up to being in the seventh grade. Unless you have another way to do that? I'm not exhausted or anything but it did take energy out of me."
"The protocol is typically interrogation in this circumstance of a captured enemy agent but that's useless in this case. You have all of her memories and have no problem sharing them so that's a positive but I don't know what the director will choose to do with her. Maybe after you give her memories we'll give her a life to live and just watch her." He said, directing the entire group into an elevator.
"What about me? I don't know how the hell this works but that asshole who donated half of my dna is Hydra, right? Does that mean...I mean am I in some kind of trouble here?" Quinn asked, obviously afraid.
"There's probably very little that you could do to help, unless you remember seeing anything specifically that you think may have been Hydra paperwork." Maribel said.
"I remember opening a folder full of files once. First one had a picture of a kid, said something about electromagnets. Second a picture of a little girl. Her name was..Jessica...something. That's important right?" The blonde asked as they stepped out of the elevator into what was obviously Coulson's office.
"Very much so, Quinn, yes. Can you remember anything else? A name, a place?" He asked, sitting at the head of a table that appeared to be for meetings.
"I feel like I saw it but I don't remember what it was. Can um...will it hurt if Santana reaches in to find it?" The Latina shook her head no immediately.
"I don't know if it hurts, but your life and your past is yours, Quinn."
"I want to help. This whole situation is crazy as hell, but unlike the two of you I'm just another normal human. No genius intellect, no mind reading, no speed, strength and flying ability. What else can I do to help? Just do it." Santana looked at Coulson and he nodded his head.
"Just be careful, Santana. Quinn do you remember how old you were when you saw all of this?"
"Fourteen."
"Fine. But relax, okay. Don't want to hurt you." Santana said. Staring into hazel eyes for a few seconds before she closed her own, being careful not to focus too deeply on memories that weren't what she was looking for. She sped past memories of Quinn staring down the hall at her and Britt standing together, pinkies linked, and past memories of her bullying Rachel. Past her lying alone in Puck's basement crying. Past the memory of her grimacing while Puck pushed inside of her. Past memories of being smacked around by her father, back too far. Back to Lucy. She pulled back. There! Quinn leaning over her father's desk, flipping through files with her eyebrow raised, her father at the store buying more scotch and her mother too drunk to even think of getting up from the couch in the den.
There they were. Names, faces, locations, powers, parents.
She opened her eyes, easing out of her friend's memories gently and pulled her phone from her pocket. Quickly but accurately she put in all the information she'd seen, sliding it across the table to Coulson. He put it down on a black glass platform on his desk, eyes wide when all of the information showed up on screen, pulling up profiles from the Shield database.
"We don't have all of this information. And some of these people are already known Hydra assets. Agent Lopez, here, I need you to get to work right now. Leroy, you too. Hiram some of these will need very specific solutions. I need you to start work when Agent Lopez updates you." All three adults stood up and left the office, leaving Santana, Rachel, and Quinn behind.
"You did very well, Quinn. Thank you. And you should know that being a regular human isn't bad. Most of the agents in shield are exactly that." The blonde nodded and all three girls got up to leave the office when Coulson took a seat behind his desk and got to work. Santana swiped her card when they got into the elevator, pressing the button to bring them down to the cafeteria. It had been two hours since everything that had happened in Rachel and Santana's hotel room and National's had been canceled and would not start again until next year. A call had been made to Quinn's mother and the rest of the group was headed back to Ohio.
"How do you know me so well already?" Rachel said, huge smile on her face as she grabbed her tray.
"What does she mean?" Quinn asked, hungry as well, putting a bacon burger, fries, and a coke on her tray.
"She means how did I know she was hungry. She eats a lot. Like a lot. You'll be surprised." the Latina clarified, watching Quinn's eyes widen as Rachel stacked food on her poor tray. Five veggie burgers, six orders of fries, mushroom noodle stir fry, and much more. The blonde looked horrified.
"I didn't even eat that much when I was pregnant!" She said as they all sat down, Santana with just a salad and a bottle of Gatorade on her tray.
"Yes well, I didn't explain it yet but I did explain my abilities and as such my bodies metabolism is far faster than what you might expect. Therefore I have to eat quite a lot.
"Understatement." Santana said, stealing a few of both Rachel's and Quinn's fries.
"No kidding. I get it though. It's cool now I don't have to feel like the fat one at the table. Not that you are the fat one. I just mean like...you know, everything you just said about your metabolism."
"I understand what you mean. And Santana, I swear! Why must you steal our food?" The Latina shrugged.
"It's a sign that she actually considers you a friend. If she didn't she wouldn't take from your plate even if you had her mother's dulce de leche cheesecake." Rachel hummed then nodded, finishing her third burger and digging into her stir fry.
"In that case steal away, Santana."
"Will do. Hey I wonder if Coulson would mind if I shadowed your dad. Like, you know while he isn't doing classified shit. Like I obviously already know all about everything going on with all of the people Quinn just gave us. I should have whatever clearance level that's on at least, right?"
"Level 5? I'm not sure. Shield is bigger than you may think and there's quite a lot going on, I have no idea what all would be on that clearance level and what you access would be. You can check you tag though. Just tap your image, it'll tell you what clearance level you have." Rachel said, tapping hers for example. Her name came up along with clearance level. It said 6. Santana did the same to hers and it said 5, Quinn's said 5 as well.
"Oh well that's makes sense. I mean you've been here forever right? Here meaning with Shield in some way." Santana asked, finally finished off the paper cup of fries she'd taken from Rachel while the smaller brunette had polished off all of her food.
"I have actually, yes." Rachel said quietly.
"Cool, so I can go bother your dad if he's cool. Maybe not though. I mean these people, Hydra having them, that shit's serious right?"
"Very much. If you'd like an alternative I can show you my gym."
"You're gym?" Quinn asked.
"I don't mean mine specifically, I mean mine as in it caters to people like me. With enhanced physical attributes. Santana I believe there's an area where you can test exactly where your abilities start and stop as well. Though If I'm wrong I doubt it'd work at all." She said honestly, shrugging.
"Wrong about what, Rach?"
"I have thought that perhaps your abilities aren't limited to exploring and even exhibiting control through the human brain. It hinges on how exactly you made that Hydra agent get rid of her weapons. Did you take control of her body, or did you take control of her mind?"
"I'm not telekinetic. I took control of her mind. Used her brain to move her body. But maybe Q and I can hit the regular gym, spar or something. The both of us practice Krav Maga and Jui Jitsu.
"Oh, Jui Jitsu is your mother's specialty, did you learn that from her?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah, we both did. Then Coach had all the Cheerios in Krav Maga the summers after Freshman and Junior year." Rachel nodded as they all stacked their dirty trays and then walked to the elevator.
"Okay, then we'll head to quarters to change and head to sub level 20."
Must you always kick my ass, Q, seriously?" Santana complained, gulping down orange Gatorade like it would help her win against Quinn in the stand up game. It wouldn't.
"I suppose. It's less me intending to kick your ass and more me refusing to lose."
"I could see how that would be a thing, yeah." Quinn's eyes shot up to hers from where they'd been focused on her pulling her gloves off.
"I suppose you did see, didn't you. Saw him beat the shit out of me repeatedly. Saw my mom being too much of a useless fucking drunk to do a damn thing about it. Probably even saw her when she was oh so rarely sober, listening to him kick my ribs in and ignoring it! Bitch!" Quinn said, somehow being cognizant of the fact that she should yell like she obviously wanted to. In a second she was launching her wrapped right fist into the heavy bag to her right side. The left came next, Santana watching as she launched combo after combo into the heavy bag, quickly moving to stop her before she fucked up her knuckles any further.
"Quinn stop. For fucks sake stop! Shit. Put the fucking gloves back on at least." Santana said, letting go and grabbing the gloves back from the floor to slide them over the blonde's fists. As soon as they were on right she turned back to the bag, launching more combos, adding in kicks plus knees and elbows when she closed range only to back away and send the bag swinging to the right with a spinning back fist. She was an unfurling ball of rage and though it worried Santana to no end it she also thought that maybe it'd be good for her. Being allowed the time and space to let all of that pain, hate, and rage out. Not on the man who deserved it, not yet, but just out of her heart. That'd have to be good enough for now.
Santana was selfish enough to realize she had no sparring partner now and wondered if Rachel was in control enough of her power to get into some grapple sparring with her. She walked out of the door of the gym and looked around the concrete hallway, making her way down the hall she was sure she saw Rachel walk down. There was a door to her left and she opened it, only slightly confused as what she saw. There were what looked to be steel balls, the first of them minuscule. It was the size of an m&m maybe. And they went up in size from that, the largest of them taller than her. This must be the telekinetic room. Closing the door behind her she walked to the small steel ball, staring at it for a few moments as she contemplated how she would even begin. When manipulating the Hydra agent she'd simply gone with what she figured her powers encompassed already.
Like really how likely would it have been that her only powers were a picture perfect memory and the ability to wade through others' memories? She thought that maybe she could control the brain she'd been exploring as well and it had suddenly become that simple. Focusing all of her attention on the small steel ball, she thought about it just miraculously lifting into the air in front of her. As if she'd picked it up without touching it.
It didn't move. So she changed tactics and thought smaller. About atoms of carbon, iron, manganese, phosphorous and so on vibrating even quicker, even harder, rubbing against each other, creating friction, and therefore...heat. That obviously wouldn't work, and didn't seem to be. It'd been five minutes already and nothing was happening. Maybe she'd have to be more thoughtful, more creative, if she wanted to figure out the thought process it'd take for the ball in front of her to lift above the small surfaced but long legged lead table it sat upon. She shrugged and turned around to leave, letting the potential atoms go in her mind and walking out of the gym, never turning around to see the small ball of high strength steel melting behind her.
"I suppose I should be so surprised that you can control your strength so well. Considering Britt says you give the best, softest hugs." Santana said gulping down her third bottle of Gatorade of the day.
"It's strange to explain but the strength isn't as natural as you would think. It doesn't just happen when I have to pull open a door or open a jar of pickles. I have to want to use it. It isn't difficult. It's just the way I've trained myself. So that I never hurt someone accidentally, for example. I would hate that." Rachel said, Santana watching as she gulped down two gallons of water.
"I get what you mean. Anyway, you're pretty good on your back. You transition like a wrestler though, what's with that?"
"Oh, yes, well I took classes. There's a predominantly female MMA gym in Cleveland and I learned there. They wanted to teach me striking as well but I was still young when I started and only just learning to control my strength and I was terrified of hurting someone. Speaking of where's Quinn. Weren't you two sparring?" Rachel asked, finishing her third jug of water and moving to stand near the beginning of the awfully large and tall obstacle course that took up a huge part of what was supposed to be a gym but was damn near the size of the lower half of a basketball arena. She wondered if she would even hear the tiny diva once she got to the top but realized that if there was one thing she knew Rachel could do it was projecting her voice to fill huge spaces.
"Ah, rolling around with another girl, feeling like a boss when you mount. I can respect that." She had to yell out. God damn Rachel was fast. She'd only barely seen her on the various obstacles. She wasn't a blur exactly, but damn near. She moved faster than any human Santana had ever seen. Which brought a question to the tip of her tongue. She'd figured by this point that she was a mutant or something like it. Having received her powers from her father who had them before her. And though Rachel had said something about her abilities coming from her mother, no one else had mentioned her. Whoever she was.
"Oh, well yes I would assume that you could. Not that I don't. I'm not specific in that way when it comes to perspective partners." Rachel said as she sprinted towards where Santana was still standing.
"Meaning you're what? Pansexual?" Santana asked, tossing Rachel yet another gallon of water... She had to wonder how often the girl had to piss.
"Exactly that, yes."
"Alright. Oh, wait didn't you ask me about Quinn? She's back in the, as she called it, muggle gym. Beating the ever loving shit out of a heavy bag. I asked why she always beats me like every time in striking and it opened a can of horrible sadistic worms.
"Ah, concerning Russel physically abusing her and her mother essentially letting it happen?"
"Um, yeah, but how the hell did you know that?"
"We had a conversation once when she was pregnant and alone in Noah's basement. I comforted her as best I could. She wouldn't let me come over there, so it had to be over the phone. I think she just needed to get it off of her chest. I was happy to help as I always am when it concerns people I care about." Rachel said easily.
"And you care about her?"
"Of course I do. I care about everyone in Glee Club even when they're being especially vicious and vindictive. I care about you two especially. I've always wanted to be your friend. I've told the both of you that. And though it does admittedly have to do with always being sure the two of you hated me it also has to do with me just knowing that the both of you were better people than you showed us all." Santana nodded as they left the gym, walking back towards the so called muggle gym to find Quinn.
When they opened the door and walked inside they found Quinn doing kipping pull ups, very well muscled arms flexing on every up swing. After the eight they saw her doing she hopped down to do clapping push ups, and then when those reps were done she was on to upside-down sit ups on the pull up bar.
"She's crazy."
"Or just driven. She works out just as hard as someone else I know. This woman who I'm talking about told me that it's about pushing yourself until you know personally where your limit is. So that eventually you can extend your limit even further."
"Okay, but why. I know about pushing hard. I've been working out under Coach for three years you know. But she always pushes harder." Rachel just shrugged.
"Because in the real world, in a situation like the one we were in today, limits are nothing but death sentences. If you can't push a little harder, a little farther, then you die. How would that situation have been different today if neither of us were there? No you to shut that agent down, no me to knock her unconscious. Just Quinn alone with a woman with a gun and a knife. I know she's thinking about that as well. Honestly she'd make a good Shield agent. In the future perhaps, if she's interested."
Santana had nothing to say. Rachel was completely right.
"I wonder if they'd let her shoot a gun? I mean like learn how to." Santana clarified, walking back over to one of fridges in the corner to grab a Gatorade.
"I'm not sure. I suppose we could always-"
"I already know how to shoot. At least at amateur level. Handguns, shotguns, marksman rifles, AR platform, AK platform. It was the one time my useless father seemed to be proud of me. Until I got better than him. Then he was just as red faced and furious as always." Quinn said, coming up behind them without either hearing until she spoke.
"Fucking ninja. Here, drink up. You've been kicking ass as usual I see. Let's go shower. Then we can find something to do. I can't work out any more today." Santana groaned out, leading the way out of the gym, down the hallway, and into the elevator.
"Sounds acceptable to me. You do technically have clearance to use the range facilities, Quinn. Although you aren't cleared for a weapon, certainly. You'd have to seek clearance from a superior officer, but seeing as neither of you have one of those I suppose we could consider going to mine. Though Maribel is guaranteed to be busy with all of this information. Perhaps it's better left for another time. Maybe we could consider using the pool?" Rachel said and they reached their three doors.
"What about not working out anymore today was I unclear about, Rach?"
"We could just float around. It'd help, really. You know that S. Besides as decked out this place seems to be there's guaranteed to be a hot tub or something.
"It's not decked out exactly. It's just that plenty of the people here live here. The amenities are primarily for them. There is a hot tub though, yes."
"I'm down. Be out in twenty."
"This is exactly what I needed, seriously. Afterwards we can go to the caf and watch Rachel stuff her face with pasta or something." Santana said, relaxing even further into the hot water as her eyes closed.
"I was thinking pasta, yes."
"Have either of you thought about what we're going to do for school? We still have finals."
"Maribel will have them pass the classes. I don't know if either of you noticed but I was gone at the end of the year last year too. We tried to get the school to just send the tests for me to complete but they didn't want me to cheat or something of the sort so they just judged it based on my overall grade for the class. So as long as you're passing your classes you'll pass your classes."
"But how long are we going to be out here in New York or wherever the hell we actually are?" Quinn asked, finally voicing a question she'd been thinking about since after lunch.
"If you would like to go home, Quinn, you can. Just inform Maribel and she'll have send you home. I think you were brought here primarily because of your father but now that information is known you don't have to stay here if you don't want to." Santana didn't have to open her eyes to tell that Rachel didn't want Quinn to leave but she did anyway, looking over and poking her Blonde friend in the side.
"I didn't say that, Rachel. I would think it obvious that I don't ever want to go back there but I'm sure Shield isn't planning to permanently set us up here. Or at least not me. They have multiple good reason to want the two of you here. They have none when it comes to me."
"You won't be going home so soon Quinn." Coulson said, appearing from no where.
"Goddamned ninjas I swear. The both of you." Santana muttered.
"I didn't tell you at the time because we were busy with the hydra agent, but your room was ransacked as well. As far as we can tell you have to extra-human abilities so we think that it was just your Father after you for some reason, but you aren't safe. The fact that he hasn't returned to your mother's house in all this time makes me think that he has no interest in her, which makes you and his interest in you a mystery. We're not particularly fans of mysteries here. Especially when they're as dangerous as all of this happens to be." The blonde nodded, just as confused as Coulson appeared to be.
"He always said I was an investment, but I never knew what he meant. Not sure if that helps at all. I always just thought it was more bullshit, honestly, Agent Coulson." He frowned the first the girl's had seen on his face.
"Maybe not. We'll see what we can dig up. In the mean time we were able to find and authenticate records and awards of your accuracy at the various shooting ranges your father took you to. You've been cleared for the firing range on sub level 19. As for you, Santana. I think you may be surprised by the news I have for you." He said, smiling once again.
"Oh, why, what's up?"
"What's up is that you melted a high strength steel ball." Santana's eyes went wide and Quinn looked confused over what he was talking about.
"Really..." Rachel asked, tapping her fingers on the edge of the hot tub.
"That worked? Crap. I didn't think it would. Like I mean obviously the science of friction and heat made sense but I didn't think I could actually influence that. It requires ridiculously precise control. Took me five minutes though. And if it melted it must have been after I left."
"Just as you left as a matter of fact. Leroy hypothesized that it was because you let go of mental control of the ball and therefore let the atoms fall back into the place they would have naturally been in."
"Well shit. That's going to require more experimentation then. To see if I can reverse that process and so on. I mean that's matter manipulation. That's dangerous, Agent Coulson. You have a safe room or something right?" She asked, horrified at the idea of hurting anyone or destroying the base, god forbid.
"Of course. Tomorrow morning? Leroy will meet you there, I'll send directions to your tablet. Good night, ladies." He walked away, leaving Santana more than a little shocked and even more excited. Holy shit. Matter manipulation? Had her father had all of these powers? She should ask her Mami or maybe Hiram.
"Look at you getting even more bad ass, S." Quinn said, laughing lightheartedly.
"She's right. You're becoming quite impressive to have just gained these abilities this morning, Santana. I can only imagine how formidable you'll become with some practice and control.
"Yeah, sure. If by bad ass you mean dangerous. And yeah, Rach. Control sounds really fucking good. I don't want to hurt anyone."
"I know exactly how you feel, Santana." The Latina nodded, looking down at her wrinkly hands and stepping out of the hot tub.
"Change then dinner?" Both girl's nodded, following her out of the pool room.
Santana stood in a rather large grey room, hexagonal shapes creating a pattern of indents. She knew Leroy stood in a room just outside of hers, speaking into her ear through the mic set into it.
"Okay very good Santana. Now we know that you can reverse the process. Let's go back towards heating again and see if we can test the time and then work on a larger object.
Two hours later and she was guzzling back Gatorade, sweating. She'd managed to reduce the time it took to melt the same size ball down to ten seconds. Though the time increased exponentially along with the size of the object, which obviously made sense. She was proud of herself but tired. She couldn't help but wonder what about using her brain made her body tired. There was a slight headache but it wasn't too bad.
"Break, Santana? I'm tired just watching you. Want to go eat and early lunch and then maybe come back?" Leroy asked. She'd gotten to know him a bit during the last four hours and she had to say she really liked the guy. She shook her head, knowing he would see it on the feed to his screen.
"No. Not yet. Want to try something. Just...silly maybe. Not sure about application." She rasped out.
"Go ahead. Try it, Santana."
She didn't walk any closer to the beach ball shaped sphere of steel she'd been last working with, instead choosing to take a seat in the chair that had been left against the wall. She closed her eyes and focused on the vibrations of the atoms again, as had been the cornerstone of the entire morning of experimentation. But this time instead having the atoms vibrate in any three dimensional direction as she had been, she forced them all to align and vibrate in a parallel direction. Soon she heard the bouncing and subtle shake of the ball of steel doing exactly as she'd directed, bouncing up and down in front of her. She stopped slowly, watching as the ball set down instead of dropping. Grinning, she pointed up at the nearest camera.
"That's what's up, Lee! Totally worked. I'm fucking awesome." The man laughed, his voice deep and smooth.
"Agreed, Kid. You do know how dangerous that is though, right?" He said it like he knew he didn't even have to ask.
"Course I do. Could cause an earthquake if I'm stupid. Could cause worse. I have no intention of using it. Not really. But I thought it might work and I wanted to know for sure." Two massive doors opened on the other side of the safe room and she walked out, slapping a high five on Leroy when he held his hand up for her.
"Glad you understand."
"Course I do. Gotta ask you a question though, Leroy. Maybe I should ask my Mom or Hiram, but your the bio specialist around here.
"Shoot."
"My Papi...did he have powers like this? Matter manipulation?" Leroy led her out into the elevator tapping his fingers against his left arm after crossing them.
"No, Kid. He didn't."