Chapter two: When the tide's change
The time finally came to move into the "bus", which still made no sense to me, seeing as though it was obviously a plane. I stood at the bottom of the ramp, completely unnoticed by a pair arguing by the ramp. Ward (sadly) was already there, staring at the two. One of the duo was a stunning Brit who's eyes twinkled as she bickered with her Scotsman counterpart. Accents dripped from every word, fascinating me to my core.
"Watch it! That's the night-night gun." Ward seemed less than pleased with the reveal of his team mates. The British girl blew her pin straight hair from her eyes and retorted.
"Well, it's on my stuff, and it doesn't work." I raised my eyebrows and stepped into the light, just realizing that I pulled a copycat of Coulson. "And there's no way we're calling it 'the night-night gun'." The girl lifted a red suitcase and the argument continued as they moved into a lab. My face contorted while I tried not to laugh at the arguing pair.
"The bullets work." The Scottish boy argued, his light curls bouncing as he protested with a what I guessed were prototype bullets in his hand. He was absolutely precious. "Non-lethal, heavy stopping power, break up under the subcutaneous tissue-" His eyebrows lifted, when she cut him off. I trailed behind Ward who was watching the interaction with a pained expression.
"Oh, with only .1 microliters of Dendrotoxin" I watched her eyes widen and her brows scoop down "I'm not Hermione," Ward became especially exasperated, and I loved every second of it "I can't create instant paralysis with that." She continued letting her bags gently to the floor. I almost made a bet to myself about when they would notice my presence. The curly haired boy responded, getting frustrated, but I could tell it was all friendly. They bickered like an old married couple, speaking over each other, neither truly listening to the other. In a sudden crash, I distractedly bumped into Ward. The duo stopped short at the sound of his bags falling and I found myself sprawled onto the floor. I didn't get up right away, as I had hit my knee and cheek on the cold, solid, floor. Curly turned to me, concern in his expression, meanwhile Ward once again stole the show.
"Fitz-Simmons?" He asked, clearly unimpressed, but that didn't seem to bother the excitable brit who gestured to Curly.
"Fitz." In turn, Fitz gestured to her announcing to us both.
"Simmons. I'm engineering, she's biochem." The two were practically symbiotic, and it amused me greatly. "Agent Ward?" he asked Mr. Tall, dark and infuriating. Ward nodded , pushing me out of his walking space with his foot, which was RUDE as fuck by the way.
"Excuse you." I called after him, sharply. Fitz took the comm-receiver from Ward's hand, carefully edging around me, trying not to step on me, so I stood, and I stood tall. Fitz looked expectantly at me.
"I'm Agent Ghost." I explained hoping that everything was aligned. They could NOT get their hands on my Dna. That would blow it all. Fitz smiled shyly and nodded, moving to his lab table.
"Yours is all set than, Agent Ghost." I had been using that name for an entire year in preparation, and I still thought it was pretty badass. Ward kept a distance behind Fitz, his tone the smallest bit smug.
"Don't know if you've worked with that model before. It's-" The change in expression as Fitz smashed down the hammer on Ward's expensive toy was enough to topple me over. He finished his statement to himself "brand new." At that point I was internally hysterical, but I managed to tone it down to a smug grin that stretched from ear to ear. Simmons, who was doing something else, explained it to him as nonchalantly as possible as though it would reassure his thoughts.
"He'll repurpose the I.D.I.S. chip." Fitz finished off her statement, staring intently at the chip he was holding with a pair of tweezers.
"Don't need the external receiver for the inner-ear comms anymore." Ward pretended to follow along by asking a question, but Simmons interrupted by forcing a cotton swab into his mouth, which thankfully, for my sake, shut him up pretty effectively. Simmons explained the answer to his question without even needing to hear the rest. After her work was done, she pulled out pleasantries.
"So, are you guys excited to be coming on our journey into mystery?" She met my eyes and I can't tell you how excited she was. I could tell that there was slight hesitation, but Fitz was much for hesitant than Simmons. My guess was it her idea.
Ward apparently felt the need to ruin everything with sarcasm, not that I'm against sarcasm, it's my greatest skill, but he was being an ass when he said "It's like Christmas." Simmons wasn't phased the least bit as she wrinkled her nose with a smile and continued her activities. Behind me there was terrible screeching that caused me to nearly jump out of my skin, but I gulped some air and calmed my anxious body. I spun on my heel to see a cherry red corvette, and God was she a beauty. Fitz spoke up as we watched Coulson pull in.
"That's one of Coulson's old S.H.I.E.L.D collectables." Just then, I realized my jaw was hanging and remembered my poker face. "Flamethrowers, world's first G.P.S, he's mad for this crap." I scoffed at Fitz and shushed him, bending down to look at the car, but not close enough to touch.
"She's beautiful, don't listen to mean old Fitzy." I muttered as a worker clad in orange bent down, apparently too close for comfort as Coulson's first words were. "Don't touch Lola." I smiled up at my father, ecstatic to be next to the classic car.
"Lola, I like it." I assured him. I barely registered Fitz speaking in the background. Coulson looked down at me, delighted and offered to show us the "bus". We rounded up some stairs as he spoke to me.
"Lola's not just a collectable, you know" I blinked up at him.
"I wouldn't think so, Sir." Coulson showed us the second floor and kept speaking.
"People tend to confuse the words 'new' and 'improved'." he pointed to the plane "this mobile command unit, they were in heavy rotation back in the 90's." I almost blew the whole thing right then and there with my inability to keep my stupid mouth shut. I had almost admitted to the bus being older than me, without remembering that my fake age was six years older than my real age. I turned my attention back to my father. "But, then we got the helicarrier." A few men in jumpsuits swiftly passed by us. I rolled my eyes several times in the next few moments when Ward ruined a perfectly good joke. May rounded to corner, telling us to unpack and gave me a meaningful look. I nodded with dual meaning and dispersed to unpack my things. I spent most of the time meditating before being called down, considering I was anxious about flying and anxious about Ward and anxious about my father and maybe I should have considered a journal. We finally touched down and I about kissed the ground, I'm sure I would have, had Coulson not rushed Ward and I out to a pretty bitchin' purple van under the orders to bring this Rising Tide member in. The alley was so stereotypical, I could have cried, and Ward seemed way too into this mission. A female voice was speaking up, reciting what sounded like a rehearsed speech, but A+ on the delivery.
Phil's face held a satisfied smirk as he threw open the van door, no doubt trying for the perfect timing. I really was his kid. There was a girl with long wavy hair and eyes like a deer in a headlight. This was also satisfying as hell. She stopped dead and turned to face us with a weak 'hey, what up?' I had the perfect comment ready, but Goddamn Ward stuck a black bag over her face with much more force than necessary. Needless to say, I bitched about that the entire way back to the "bus". Ward forcefully dragged her on the plane, still glaring daggers at me, but in return I only popped some bubblegum and sighed at his unnecessary display of testosterone. Not that it wasn't just an itty bit attractive, but never mind that. Poor girl, we just wanted to talk. Coulson placed his hand on my shoulder, pushing me into the interrogation room. My job was to observe her personality and unconscious ticks to report to Coulson what the best methods might be to get her to speak.
"You guys are making a big mistake." She warned, only fueling Ward's need to compensate. He obviously found her attractive judging by the way his eyebrows softened when he took off the weird, black, head bag, which I still thought was unnecessary. He responded, which I knew would get us nowhere.
"Funny, you don't look very big to me." He laughed to himself and watched her push her hair out of her face. Once again I saw his eye brows soften and his chest puff out subtly. He crossed the room to Coulson, who apologized, but I only smiled and waved to let her know that I wasn't in any way like Ward.
"Sorry for the lack of finesse. Agent Ward here has had a little history with your group, The Rising Tide." I sighed again and couldn't help myself.
"Of course he does." My dad shot me a look, but the young woman spoke up.
"I don't know what you're-." Ward spoke over her.
"Okay , there are two ways we can do this." I muttered under my breath, causing her the slightest amusement.
"Do you have to be that stereotypical?" Ward gave me the evil eye, even though Coulson was holding back a smile. I grinned back at Ward, knowing full well that it would piss him off. My outburst gave her a boost of confidence.
"Oh, is one of them the easy way?" she mocked with a condescending smile. This girl was growing on me. Ward replied with a malicious 'no'. "Oh" Coulson moved the interrogation along by asking her name. She answered saying it was Skye, but Ward didn't seem to believe it.
"What's your real name?" he pressed. I sighed louder this time.
"That can wait." My father cut in "It's another name we need- a certain hero." Sky seemed to comprehend what he was saying, and she did not look happy.
"What makes you think I know that?" I let my mind wander as they recited some tech babble that meant absolutely nothing to me. I could, however decipher that Skye wanted it to look like she planned this whole thing, but false confidence only goes so far.
"Want to tell me what my team is going to find out?" He continued after her silence. "How did you know the hooded man was in the building?" He was good, but she wasn't close to cracking, I assumed she would need rule bender to open up to. I noted that. Ward, of course jumped to most violent conclusion. I sent him a look that hopefully came across as saying 'you're an idiot'.
"Did you blow up the building to draw him out?" He stood so close to her, I could practically hear her personal bubble popping. Like I said, testosterone. He was attempting to be intimidating and domineering to scare the information out of her. Frankly, to me he just looked like a jackass. She raised her eyes to meet his, fearlessly. I had a hunch that the next thing out of her mouth was going to kill me in the best way.
"Did you?" I stood in the corner and couldn't stop myself from pointing at him with an accompanied laugh. I decided that I liked this girl, already. Coulson intervened.
"That's not our style." Skye gave him a disbelieving look.
"I was just kidnapped, by your style." She spat out fiercely. I spaced out for a moment, I'll admit, I was juggling my thoughts between how attractive Ward was and how much I wanted to hit him with a car door. The she said something about "centipede". I watched Ward's face give away every single thought in a gesture that was so stupidly obvious. He pretended to scratch his head and questioned Coulson. The gesture was so obvious that either Ward meant it to be discreet and failed, or it was staged. I wouldn't doubt the second option either.
"Holy no way." I tilted my head in agreement and gave Ward a "What the fuck is wrong with you" face. I really hoped he was better at reading expressions than he was at "discreetly" asking about intel. "You don't know what that is." Skye stated. She flickered her eyes to me. I shrugged in response. Skye turned back to my father and gave him a lecture that I felt was not worth my focus. For a moment, I wondered if I should have started taking meds for my A.D.H.D. again.
"You need to think about your friend. We're not the only one's interested in people with powers." Coulson looked at her with soft, pleading eyes. "We want to contain him, yeah." He admitted "But the next guy will want to exploit him." She looked back to me with questioning eyes. May face remained solemn. "And the guy after that will want to dissect him." My face twisted into a cringe at the thought. And of course, Ward missed his limelight.
"What is centipede?" Skye turned to me, her voice much more friendly.
"You don't talk much, do you?" For the third time in the hour, the moment I started talking, Grant interrupted.
"On the contrary, we can't get her to shut up." I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes, praying for patience. Coulson held his hands up in surrender.
"Hey, don't bring me into this, I just want to know what Centipede is." At this point, I was ready to throw Grant Ward out of the plane. Sky glanced at me, apologetic and stood up.
"Centipede-it was chatter on the web" she paused, turning to look at us all "and then gone." she lifted her hands, showing her frustrations. "I traced the Access-point Mac address to that building." Ward continued with the questioning, looking a tad defeated as he sat.
"What were you after?" I had a feeling I knew the answer to this one. She quickly spun his way.
"The truth." Ten points to Gryffindor, I was correct. She tilted her head, irritated. "What are you after." By turning the question around, I could tell that Sky would take something good to really talk. I jotted that down with a few of my other notes. I snorted out the water I was drinking when Ward answered 'world peace'. That was rich, coming from the world's most confrontational MiB agent. I quickly apologized and waved the group along.
"You pseudo-anarchist hacker types love to stir things up, but you're never around for the fallout." Wow, such big words for such a simple man. I resisted the urge to say it out loud. I wasn't going to over-do it, but GOD I wanted to. He stood up again and he lost me. I can't tell you how long a spaced out, but I had all the intel observations that I needed. If the self-righteous prick would let me talk then maybe, just maybe, we could actually get somewhere. I heard the word toolbag, and I knew that Skye and I were going to get along, just fine.
"She might as well be one of those sweaty cosplay girls crowding around Stark tower." I took offense to that.
"Excuse me, I cosplay." I started getting testy. He turned with a triumphant grin.
"My point exactly." Oh I was so going to punch this little fucker out. Before I could respond, Coulson, who was obviously done with our arguing, got to his feet and left the room, pulling me with him. I heard Sky muttering to herself. "It was one time." God bless that girl. It was all I could do not to laugh in Ward's face as he was chewed.
"Is it the girl? Is she getting under your skin?" Was he referring to Skye, or me? All I knew was Ward was failing horribly and I relished that. Did that make me a shitty person?
"Are you so anxious to get out of the assignment that you'd deliberately blow an interrogation?" That must have been a good slap to his pride. "And completely ignoring any kind of logical help from a teammate?" I raised my brow.
"Give me a minute alone with her, you'll have your answers." I bit my tongue. Phil looked to me.