Hearing someone knocking on her bunk door, Skye looks up from her computer, eyes landing on Coulson. She can feel how her whole body goes rigid, but she makes sure to hide the fact that she is feeling uncomfortable.
"Mission briefing in 5."
He informs her and Skye nods her head, turning her attention towards her computer once more. She can feel that Coulson is still looking at her and she lifts her head, hopping that he would get the idea of leaving her alone. When he doesn't seem to get the hint, Skye takes in a deep breath and closes her laptop. She had been working on some sensitive information concerning Ghost-Spider's case.
Rising from her bed, Skye forces herself to keep on breathing as she passes Coulson and heads for the briefing room. Seeing that Jemma is already in the room, she quickly places herself beside the biochemist. The other girl is in a conversation with Fitz, but her hand reaches back to grab Skye's to let her she is there.
Hearing that others are coming towards them, she turns her head slightly to see that Melinda and Ward enters the room, with Coulson coming after them. Skye can see that Melinda has already figured out she knows that something is wrong and she takes her place beside her. Coulson takes his normal spot and starts up the mission report.
"At 08-00 hours, three men infiltrated the Havenworth federal penitentiary."
Coulson says, as a video is playing behind him, showing how three men comes crashing down from the roof.
"Infiltrated? More like cannonballed."
Skye comments, keeping her voice low, but the way both Jemma and Melinda look at her, she knows the two of them heard what she said.
"They were in and out in less then two minutes. Left no prints at the scene, but we do have one lead."
Coulson continues to explain, turning towards the screen to pause the video and zoom in on one of the men.
"Centipede."
Ward points out as Coulson waves his hand over the halocom a few more times showing different images, amongst them Chan and the lab in Hong Kong.
"It seems they salvages some of their research from Hong Kong."
"So, we were right. Chan's platelets solved their combustion problem. Now they can create super soldier with no fear of explosion."
Simmons points out and Skye gets a bad feeling about it all, and steps closer to Melinda. Feeling that the older woman takes her hand and squished it, she calms herself slightly. Looking towards Jemma, she can see the happiness in her eyes, and she shakes head and looking at the others in the room she can see that Fitz is looking at her with worry in his eyes.
"Maybe don't get so excited about it?"
He asks her and Jemma's face falls quickly.
"Two of Centipede's labs have been destroyed but they keep popping back up. Now they have at least three of these guys, maybe more."
Coulson continues, like the action between Jemma and Fitz didn't happen.
"How did they break out?"
Melinda asks, as to help Coulson to keep the conversation in the right directions.
"Edison Po, former Marine, expert in tactics and rapid response."
Coulson waves his hand over the halocom to show Po's information on the big monitor.
"He fell off the gird in '08, reappeared 18 months ago at a diner in Boston."
"Where he stabbed a friend's eyes out. "
"With a stake knife, then finished his meal."
Hearing this, a chill run through Skye's body and she starts to wonder if she should even be in the room when this is being said.
"That's funny, Po doesn't look crazy."
She mumbles, feeling everyone looking at her, she realises she had been louder than she thought she was.
"I'm kidding. The guy is a walking mug shot."
She explains herself, lowering her head.
"Which means he shouldn't be too hard to track down. Finding Po and these Centipede Soldiers is a top-notch priority for S.H.I.E.L.D. We'll be running point, but we won't be working alone."
Coulson continues and turning back to the holocom.
"What team did HQ send for backup?"
Ward asks and imagine a whole group of people showing up, having more men walking around the bus makes Skye freeze in her spot. Melindas hand is on her lower arm, and she can also feel that Jemma is reaching out for her. Knowing that she has protection around her at all times, Skye takes in a deep breath once more.
"Not a team, a person. Someone who can help us fight fire with fire."
"Somebody you have worked with before?"
Skye decides to ask, hopping that the person that is being brought in is one of the Avengers. For something like this, Steve would be the best option and she wouldn't need to hide from him.
"Not exactly."
Coulson answered her question which doesn't make her feel any better and watching him move his hand over the holocom one last time and the information of the agent that will join them, Skye has to steel herself not to turn and walk out of the room.
"You have to be kidding whit us!"
She hears Ward comment, and this got to be the first time she has ever agreed with Ward on anything. Looking at Jemma, Fitz and Melinda, she can see a mixture of emotions in their eyes over this new information.
"Orders from higher up, he will arrive in an hour, get everything ready so we can head out directly."
Coulson orders, putting an end to any more complaints. Glancing towards Melinda, Skye can see how she nods her head slightly and before Skye has a chance to figure out what the head nod means, she feels two hands on her shoulder before being pushed out of the room by Jemma.
"You are sticking with me for the rest of the time."
Her friend whispers and Skye nods her head, finding another reason why she is happy Jemma knows her secret. Once they are out of the meeting room, Jemma moves one of her hands and place herself beside Skye as they walk down to the lab, Fitz following them.
Skye spends her time in the lab of to the side, watching Jemma and Fitz working in their usual speed. When the hour is growing close, she follows the two up to the meeting room, where they meet with Ward who is looking at the clip Skye had taken when they first crossed path with Mike, when he rescued the doctor.
"It's not good, at all. The guy was a ticking time bomb, literally."
Ward comments as he is going over some of the guns that he had placed on the holocom.
"HQ wouldn't have sent him if he was still combustible. They must've found a way to stabilize him somehow."
"They stabilize attitude? Cause he was pretty hostile in Union Station."
"Well, it's not like we haven't opened up our doors to other people, people with questionable track records."
Jemma points out and as she says other people, she looks towards Skye who rolls her eyes but smiles, remembering when she had been taken to the BUS and everything that had happened within the first couple of days.
"Not cool, but true."
Skye points out, which makes Jemma smile.
"And HQ wouldn't send someone that isn't a good person, and besides, he's been in the Centipede program. If anyone can give us some superpower backup, it's him."
"Just saying this could easily go sideways. I mean the last time we saw this guy; he was a raging homicidal maniac-"
As Ward is speaking, Skye's eyes travels to the side and they land on Coulson and Mike, Mike have ended up right behind Ward. Judging from the look in Ward's face, Skye isn't the only one who has noticed the added people in the room and quickly grows silent as she herself makes sure to step in behind Jemma for extra protection.
"He's standing right behind me, isn't he?"
Ward asks and Skye nods her head, making a face at the whole situation.
"Mr Peterson, this is agent Grant Ward."
Coulson starts the introduction as Ward makes sure to take a step back and turning.
"He's the man who shot you in Union Station."
Coulson adds before waving his hand towards Jemma and Fitz.
"Fitz-Simmons, they designed the weapon he used, and I think you remember –"
Coulson goes on and Skye makes sure to move slightly to the side from Jemma, so Mike can see her, but she makes sure to keep away and keep her face neutral.
"Kidnap victim."
Skye fills in the blank of what Coulson was going to say.
"You joined S.H.I.E.L.D?"
Mike asks as his eye's lands on her, and Skye can understand his surprise, considering what she had said to him when trying to get his information.
"Yeah. Turns out, guys in suits, not so bad."
She answers her, keeping her head somewhat low.
"Look, I know Union Station could have gone another way. Another team might not have let me out of there alive. I ow you, all of you."
Mike tells them and Skye can see that he really means it and she feels slightly bad for him.
"How's your son?"
She decides to ask, changing the conversation to something more proactive.
"Still with my sister. He thinks I'm working construction, but he's good, happy."
Mike answers and Skye nods her head, happy to hear that the young kid is doing well after everything that happened. The event of that day could easily full trauma for anyone, and the last thing Skye wanted to see was another broken child.
"So, what do we have?"
Coulson asks, moving towards the holocom, forcing Ward to remove his weapons.
"Not much on Po. I checked his previously known addresses and old military contacts, came up empty."
"We've been looking for where Po might be on the outside. Let's look at his life on the inside, at the prison. See if that gets us any leads."
Skye informs him and Coulson nods his head before giving her the next task.
"Anything on the Centipede Soldiers?"
"We found a facial recog match on one of them."
Coulson asks and Jemma quickly jumps in with the information as Ward activates the information on the big monitor.
"Name's Brian Hayward. Stationed in Afghanistan for three years, then fell of the radar when he got back."
"Only living relative - sister, Laura, a sophomore at the University of Ohio."
Skye adds and pulls up the information they had on the sister.
"She's our best shot at finding Hayward."
Coulson decides and his attention turns towards Ward.
"You and I will go talk to her. Have May set a course for Cleveland."
He orders and Ward nods his head, but Skye steps to towards the door before he has a chance to.
"I'll inform May."
She says, happy to finally have a reason to leave the meting room and get away from them all for a while. Her nerves are at an end, and she needs some silence and peace. Reaching the cockpit faster than any other time, she opens the door without knocking and takes the co-pilot seat with a heavy sigh.
"Orders form Coulson, we need to head for Cleaveland."
She informs Melinda before closing her eyes. Hearing how Melinda starts working on the console, she tries to just relax happy that her mother won't ask questions until she feels ready to talk, and in this moment. Skye isn't sure she will be able to talk about any of it until this mission is over and Mike is of the plane. She knows he's a good guy, but after what happened with Coulson, she has fallen back in her trust of men, and it was starting to show more and more.
Once she fells better and more in control, she rises from the seat to grab the extra tablet that has been placed in the cockpit just for this reason. She returns to the co-pilot seat and starts looking into Po's life within the prison. It doesn't take her long to find what she is looking for and she shakes her head.
"What?"
Melinda asks, the first words she speaks since Skye entered the room.
"I might have found something."
She informs her mother, and she can see that Melinda puts the plane on autopilot and rises from her seat, head nodding towards the door.
"Show me."
Making it clear that this isn't a conversation she wants to have in the cockpit and Skye can understand her on that, it doesn't make her happy however and she follows Melinda down to the meeting room, making sure to send the video and everything else over to the holocom and starts working on opening the video once they enter the room.
"Po only had one visitor during his prison stint, her. You notice the outfit? Miles said a girl in a flower dress asked him to hack S.H.I.E.L.D, this could be the same girl."
Skye explains as she plays the video and Melinda leans forwards.
"Can we hear the conversation?"
"That's the bummer, there's no audio. But it's not a total loss. I was able to use S.H.I.E.L.D's lip-reading program. It didn't work on the girl because she never looks up at the camera, but Po did, once, and it caught this."
Skye explains, as she works on getting the audio clip to play.
"The Clairvoyant doesn't like to be touched."
A robotic voice speaks and a chill run through Skye as she quickly opens a document to write down what had just been said.
"And I know have it written down, so we don't have to hear that again - ever."
"The Clairvoyant?"
"Yeah. Does that mean anything to you?"
Melinda shakes her head, her eyes on the screen.
"But it means something to them. To Po and whoever that woman is."
"Her name's Raina."
At Mikes voice from behind her, Skye jumps and moves towards Melinda, who she can she is getting herself ready just in case of, well, anything.
"You know her?"
Skye managed to ask, and Mike nods his head.
"Yeah, she recruited me for Centipede. Came up to me in the hospital where I did my back therapy, out of the blue. Told me she could change my life."
He explains and Skye nods her head, not liking where all of this is heading. She has a bad feeling about all of this and the longer it is going on, the worst it will end. Turning her attention towards Melinda, Skye is sure her mother is having the same feeling as she has, which is never a good sign.
