Chapter 33 - Double Escapees
Down in the Bus' lab, Soladat, Fitz, and Simmons were gathered. While Fitz was trying to decipher the audio file from the scene of the explosion, Simmons was experimenting with a piece of metal that was recovered from the area. To Soladat's surprise and chagrin, the metal was of Chitauri origin. She immediately assumed that the explosion was caused by the metal, as anything related to the Chitauri hadn't proven good in the past. However, Simmons' findings contradicted this theory.
"So the alien metal wasn't the explosive?" Soladat said, frowning at Simmons.
Simmons shook her head. "No, I assumed from the break pattern and dispersion that it was, but it's just dripping with gamma radiation and... Oh!"
Simmons recoiled slightly from the piece of alien tech, grinning sheepishly. She was wiping her hand against her labcoat, trying to rid it of some kind of green liquid."Now it actually is dripping."
Soladat smirked. "You can sterilize your hands later. But what does this get us?"
"Not much at the moment, ma'am." Simmons confessed. "I still haven't collected all of the components and key pieces of... whatever this 'device' was. But those that I've found are... odd. Gamma radiation and Chitauri metal? That's a very troublesome mix."
"No kidding." Soladat murmured, and then turned back to Fitz, who was still fiddling with the holotable. "Fitz? What have you got?"
"Skye's at her van. She's still sending the rest of her decrypted files on Centipede." Fitz explained. "But she did relay the audio. I've loaded it up."
"Nice work." Soladat said.
Fitz smiled and nodded in appreciation. He moved his hands over the holotable, summoning the previous still of the angry man and the man in the labcoat from before. "Now, using motion estimation, Bayesian interference, a beam splitter, and a little diffraction theory, our mystery man... appears!"
Everyone turned towards the screen mounted on the central wall, and the image of the two men appeared. Once Fitz combined the audio, a video started playing.
The scientist spoke first. He lifted up his hands in an attempt to calm the obviously angry customer in his presence. "Please, calm down. Just let me check your vitals."
"I feel fine." The other man growled. His fists were clenched and he stepped menacingly towards the scientist, who stepped back cautiously. "I want to feel more."
"Where's the doctor?" The angry man demanded. The scientist seemed to flinch at his tone. Simmons and Fitz were staring at the screen with wide eyes, while Soladat frowned at the exchange. "Where is she?!"
"S-Sir, please. I-If you don't settle down, I-I'll have to sedate you." The scientist tried to reason, but his speech died out when the angry man's body suddenly glowed a bright orange red. His skin seemed to be pulsing with heat, and the scientist shivered and tried to inch as far away from the man as possible.
"What in the hell...?" Soladat said, eyebrows furrowed.
"Sir, please...!"
"Where is she!?" The man roared, and he lifted his up and prepared to strike the scientist. That was when Soladat caught sight of a gleaming shimmer of metal coming from the man's arm.
"Wait." she said. "Go back three seconds. Zoom in on his arm."
Fitz complied, and the image zoomed in on the angry man's wrist. While the quality was choppy, the three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could see clearly what was on the man's wrist. It was some kind of prosthetic device. It was pulsating with a similar orange glow. But it was the shape of which that drew everyone's attention.
Simmons was the first to speak. "Does... does that look like a-"
"A centipede." Fitz finished for her.
"Huh." Soladat said. "At least we know where the name came from. What exactly are we looking at here?"
"It's some kind of implant from the looks of it." Fitz guessed.
"It's an intravenous filter for his blood." Simmons spoke up. Soladat and Fitz turned to her, seeing that she was examining a large piece of the alien metal. "And I'm guessing that this is what's left of it. I just finished examining the chemical, and it's very similar to the serum Dr. Erskine developed in the '40s for the..."
"Super soldiers." Soladat gave an annoyed sigh, shaking her head. "People are never gonna quit with that."
"But there are some key differences." Simmons quickly claimed. "There are readings of Chitauri metal, gamma radiation, the serum, every known source of superpower thrown in a blender. I'm even detecting traces of orihalcon."
"Say what?" Soladat sputtered, looking surprised for the first time all day.
"There's orihalcon in the formula." Simmons reiterated, looking grim.
Soladat just shook her head in confusion. "How the hell is that even possible? The only known traces of orihalcon on the planet are of alien origin. Xegh Hikesh's stasis pod and Darcy Lewis' hammer, both of which I'm almost certain are impossible to obtain without clearance."
"Ma'am, I'm just as confused as you are." Simmons confessed. "I'll examine the contents again if you like."
Soladat nodded, then turned to Fitz. "Run it back from the last point recorded. We need to see the origin of the blast."
"Yes, ma'am." Fitz said, running the playback again.
"Where is she!?" The angry man roared. Then, he lifted his fist up, just as he did right before they paused the playback. This time, with no interruptions, the three agents cringed slightly when they saw the man's fist collide with the scientist's head, pulping his brain. The scientist fell to the ground, dead but still fidgeting. The angry man was screaming at him, growing more and more furious.
"What the hell is going on here?!" A new voice spoke up. The angry man looked in the direction of the voice, which was that of a woman's. However, the three agents could not see the person as the camera was positioned away.
"You!" The man growled. His body seemed to be pulsating. "You promised me! You promised me it would work!"
"You need to settle down!" The second voice stated, sounding just as furious. "What did you do to Dr. Cormack?"
"You need to fix this!" The man roared, although he sounded more desperate, afraid almost. "You need to- ugh!"
The man suddenly doubled over.
"What are you doing?" The other voice wondered in confusion. Soladat, Fitz, and Simmons all gawked as they saw the man's body pulsate and grow. Simmons held her hand up to her mouth in disgust when he started howling in pain, his body leaking some horrible orange fluid.
"Shit!" The female voice stated. "Everyone get the hell out of here! Get the hell out-"
She was silenced, as the man himself exploded in a fiery torrent of radiation-like energy. The explosion only went on for a split-second before the feed suddenly died. Soladat, Fitz, and Simmons all stared at the feed in shock.
"Alright." Fitz murmured, wide eyed. "That was the scariest thing I've ever seen."
"Well, you wanted a bomb."
Everyone turned to stare at the source of the new voice, seeing Agent Ward had entered. He looked just as shocked as they did, apparantly having seen the feed as well.
"Ward." Soladat said stiffly. Ward just nodded back, still focusing on the feed.
"Mind telling me what I just saw?"
Soladat looked at Simmons for clarification. "Simmons?"
"I got it." Simmons said, she picked up the remains of the centipede device with her prongs, and laid it on the table. Gently ushering Fitz aside, she started fumbling with the keypad. A holographic display of the device was enlarged for everyone to see. With her hands, Simmons willed the hologram to grow larger, zooming in on the orange substance.
"The explosion was similar to another mutagenic factor. One that we've seen before." Simmons said. "The samples are identical to those recovered from the incident at the Norco."
"Extremis." Soladat said in realization.
Simmons nodded.
"So the guy didn't bring an explosive..." Ward said.
"He was the explosive." Soladat finished. She quickly turned to Simmons. "So... the device utilizes a serum that's made from the Extremis virus, Prothean metal, Chitauri metal, Hulk juice, and World War II era steroids to turn people into walking time bombs?"
Simmons twiddled her thumbs nervously. "... Yes."
"Well that's just fucking perfect." Soladat said, throwing her hands up and then on her hips. She looked over at Fitz. "Is there any way you can give us the identity of the woman we heard in the playback?"
"Er, maybe." Fitz shrugged. "I can probably run a few vocal scans and see if I can find any matches.
Soladat nodded, looking at everyone else. "Good. In the meantime, we need to find Peterson. Get Melinda and Skye back here pronto."
"Yeah, about that..." Ward said slowly, crossing his arms. Everyone turned to him. "I just got a call from Agent May. There was a... a problem."
Soladat groaned. "What happened?"
ooooo
Two minutes earlier: Skye's van, alleyway in Los Angeles
Skye just finished sending the rest of the decrypted files to the bus, and smirked triumphantly. She closed her laptop and stood up, looking over to her escort.
"That should do it. We can head back now."
May nodded, and exited the van first. "Alright, let me just-"
May grunted when a fist suddenly shot out and struck her in the head. She was knocked out instantly, and fell onto the hard concrete. Skye looked with wide eyes and backed away when the figure came into view. She recognized him immediately.
"Mike?"
Mike Peterson quickly scrambled into the van, the hand of a smaller child gripped protectively in his own. Skye recognized him as Mike's son. He seemed upset, and was whimpering.
"How the-what... Are you nuts?!" Skye stuttered as Mike closed the door. "What are you doing?!"
"Saving you." Mike said to her. "From the scary men in dark suits."
He buckled his son up to one of the back seats. "Now, you're gonna help save us?"
"'Us'?" Skye repeated incredulously.
"Us." Mike said again, referring to him and his son. The child, meanwhile, seemed terrified of what was happening. Seeing his son's distress, Mike tried soothing the boy.
"Hey, it's alright." he promised. "Stay strong for me, Ace. What are we?"
"We're a team?" The boy answered.
Mike smiked. "That's right."
He then turned to Skye. "Now. Drive."
ooooo
Barrow, Alaska
Secret S.H.I.E.L.D. Facility
Emil Blonsky was bored. He hated being bored. Suspended in this cell, wrapped in tight restraints, chains, or whatever S.H.I.E.L.D. had that was strong enough to contain him in case of another... accident.
If his boredom weren't bad enough, the discomfort of his position was worse. The condition of his body only added to the discomfort. After his grisly mutation during the incident in Harlem two years ago, Blonsky's human form had become damaged. Mangled. Unrecognizable. He was no longer fit for duty, as both his physical and mental health had seriously declined.
Transformation or not, Blonsky was, by definition, an abomination.
His guards did not make it easy. For a while, they were scared of him, but after a while, after zero number of incidents, they had begun to mock Blonsky. They were young, not even caring if their earned his enmity.
Currently, one guard, a young man, no doubt in his early twenties, was standing in front of the glass cell. The cell was in the middle of a large chamber. The clueless agent tapped his nightstick against the glass, smirking.
"Yo, you awake in there?" he called.
Blonsky just stared at him blankly.
"What? Did those drugs mess up your brain, too?" the guard went on. "Come on, say something."
Blonsky remained silent. The guard snorted. "Typical. You rot away like the son-of-a-bitch you are, then."
Blinsky's eyes narrowed, but it went unnoticed by the guard. The foolish young man was about to make another meaningless quip, when the lights suddenly started to flicker.
"What the?" the guard said, confused.
Suddenly, the door opened, and the guard turned, expecting to see another member of the facility's personnel come to relieve him of his duties for the day. He frowned when he saw someone he did not recognize.
"Who are you? This area is restricted."
The guard didn't even have time to react when the figure shot their hands out and grabbed the guard's head, twisting it around 180 degrees, an audible snap reverberating with the action. The man's body twitched, but remained standing. Blonsky watched with a raised eyebrow as the figure gently tapped the guard, and he fell over, evidently dead. He observed the figure as they sauntered closer to the cell. A femenine outline became apparant as the figure stepped into the light and up to the cell, resting their hand on the glass.
The figure smiled. "Best get up and about, Blonsky. You have a long overdue reunion with an old friend of yours."
The thirty-third chapter has been posted, to those with interest :) Soladat's team will have their confrontation with Peterson in the next chap, while in the meantime, Emil Blonsky, who you all know as the Abomination from The Incredible Hulk, is granted an unliscenced parole by an anonymous visitor. That spells doom for some people.
iamgoku: Awesome chapter , I've been waiting like forever for this story to be continued. Are the events of Captain America the winter soldier going to come into play soon? And it would be cool to see Carrie in the story some more ( I love her character )
I'm glad you're enjoying this. And I apologize for the great amount of time it has taken for me to actually update and that you've had to wait so long, but things are busy right now. I am adamant to continue with this story, but I can't gaurentee immediate updates. The Winter Soldier story arc will come in in time, and it will turn out much differently than it did in the films. But for the time being, the story will focus mainly on Soladat's team. However, due to the length of the first season, I will only go over a few key points of the TV series. If I were to cover the whole series, well then I, as well as tons of other people, would just get bored of this fic.
I'm glad you like Carrie. She will return, and will play a role in the Winter Soldier arc