The Snowfox and the Blue Jay, an agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. fanfic

ORION.

One of the largest SHIELD headquarters in the world had turned into a loud and chaotic nightmare of a madhouse all because Orion Swan's younger sister never really grew out of her rebellious phase.

You'd think that years of training at the Academy of Operations followed by years in the field executing missions in life-threatening circumstances, that she'd gain a bit of perspective and go through that shift all specialists who lived this type of life went through. Some maturity, a hardened psyche, a noticeably colder demeanor. But no. On her twenty-first birthday, the girl's first plan of action was tricking a level 8 agent into giving her access keys to the Hub and then throwing the wildest — against-protocol — celebration that the place had ever seen.

Did spies and assassins even celebrate birthdays? He didn't even know when Romanoff, May, or Ward's birthdays were, much less what happened on those days. Sure, Orion went out of his way to celebrate his own birthday — cut him some slack, he's only twenty-four — but never to this extent.

"Watch where you're going," He bit at a guy he had never seen before in his life as he pushed through the crowd. For the past half an hour, he had been walking around more sober than he'd like to be trying to find his slippery snake of a sister, to absolutely no avail.

The place was a mess. What usually is the atrium of the Hub, SHIELD's home base filled with agents heading towards their respective tasks, was now an onslaught of early twenty-year-olds drunk or high out of their minds, screaming as if anyone could hear them over the sound of the blaring music.

"Look at that, if it isn't the bigger of the two Swans."

Lunaria Volkova, dark hair and feline smile as deadly as usual tapped him on the shoulder as Orion turned around.

Orion rolled his eyes, "Oh, you're here too. I thought you two would be a little bit above this immature bullshit."

"Immature bullshit? Speak for yourself, I'm having fun," Lunaria took a sip from the cup in her hand, "Well, let's get on with it" she rolled her eyes, "If I'm here, miss-birthday-girl better better at least be here to appreciate it. Where's Callisto?"

"Probably out-of-her-mind drunk and fucking a stranger somewhere," Orion gritted his teeth as he scanned the place one more time, "Hell if I know, you know she's one of those girls who comes to these stupid parties for one reason only."

Lunaria slapped him on the arm, "Watch the way you talk about women, kid."

"Don't call me kid, I'm twenty-four."

"Dear fucking God," Lunaria rolled her eyes, "Swan, don't underestimate your sister. She's smart, and she's not so self-centered as to not show up to her own party. We'll find her."

CALLISTO.

Callisto Swan, the younger sister, was in fact, fucking a stranger somewhere.

. . . Well, not a stranger.

"Fuck, Swan," Agent Grant Ward groaned as he got up from the velvet chaise in the lounge two floors above the party, "You're not going to be able to do shit on our Paris mission tomorrow."

"You know that we work through the pain in our field of work," the girl chuckled as she reached for the half-finished glass of Rosé on the table.

Locks of raven-black hair, usually long and shiny, were drenched in sweat and plastered to her face, where mascara smudged dark and smoky around fox-like eyes.

"Remember that when you're whining about not being able to walk in the morning," Grant threw his shirt on before walking back to her, snatching the glass out of her hand, "And you're not drinking anymore, can't have you too hungover. Come on, I'm taking you home."

The girl groaned in protest, pulling him along as she lay back down, "It's my birthday, let me enjoy it. Plus, you're not getting me back to dorms at Ops, security's going to be up by now."

"Fine, I'm taking you to my place," he tossed her the silver dress she had been wearing earlier, "Good that I can keep an eye on you until tomorrow, actually."

"Your place? Doesn't that sound fun."

The door flew open before Grant could respond. Orion Swan stood in the doorway, somewhere between irritated and exhausted, "I don't want to know what the fuck is going on here, but someone's here to see you. You might want to get sober for this."

ORION.

Someone seriously should have made a guests list, and informed Orion of it before he opened the front gates of the Hub.

"Good evening, Agent Swan," Phil Coulson smiled as he walked through, "Or should I say, good morning. You know, since it's now 1:30am, in the morning."

Orion blinked, "You're alive?"

"I never get tired of hearing that. Tell me Agent Swan, is your sister in here by any chance?"

"No she is not," He frowned, years of training in telling lies playing it off with ease, "Last I heard from her, she was visiting the Sci-Tech academy. To see her friend, Agent Linu, I believe. They had plans for her birthday."

"Did she, now?" Phil asked, "Because agent Sitwell actually told me that she asked him for codes to override security systems in the Hub. And well, you know Sitwell, he gave them to her. And…" He made a show of looking through the doors to see what was happening inside, "It looks to me like those security systems did get overridden, what about you?"

Shit. Wrong move. He cleared his throat, hoping to be able to just come up with a reasonable excuse, "Sir, I can explain. The only reason she—"

But Coulson interrupted him, "Save it, Swan. I'm not here to play police officer. But I do need to see your sister. I have a career proposition."

CALLISTO.

"Miss Swan, I don't think I have to remind you that we have rules in place at SHIELD regulating fraternization between agents, much less between full-fledged agents and academy students."

Callisto took the water that Coulson offered her, "I thought that I technically am an agent, I did get the badge and everything."

"You know you're still completing your training. Speaking of which, should we also go into the curfew regulations we have for students, which you are not exempt from?"

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that, by the way, you know that most post-secondary institutions don't have stupid rules about when you are or aren't allowed to leave campus—"

"If you wanted a normal university life, miss Swan, you should've picked somewhere else" Coulson snapped, "This is the SHIELD Academy of Operations. We are creating agents who can speak a dozen languages, disable a nuclear bomb in seconds, and kill men without batting an eye. You cannot do any of these things when you spend your nights partying and drinking like this."

"I'm also high."

"Shall we go over our protocols about substance use, too?"

"Agent Volkova drowns a bottle of vodka every night, pumps herself with so drugs that she carries fake tests with her, and fucks a new guy every hour or so, but I'm the one who's breaking protocols?"

"Agent Volkova is an ex-assassin who's made three of our SHIELD psychiatrists quit their jobs and move to the other end of the world, do you really want to end up like her?"

Callisto put the bottle of water down. Crossed her arms, "I think I might be halfway there, already. Obviously you think so, it's why you've let me be for this long."

"I'm here because I have a proposition for you," Coulson said calmly, "I was going to inform you now that I will be deciding whether to continue or withdraw that proposition based on your performance on your Paris mission tomorrow, but I'm taking you off of that assignment. Agent Ward will retrieve the package alone."

"Excuse me?"

"Agent Swan, do take a look at yourself before arguing."

Callisto fell silent for a moment before rolling her eyes and making a move to get up, "Alright then, I guess that makes your decision easier. Good day."

"Sit down."

Callisto stared at him silently. Crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm putting together a command unit," Coulson said, "And I want you on it."

"A command unit," She repeated, "You just said I'm not even a full agent yet, why me?"

"Because you stole the access codes from Agent Sitwell, right to his face, without him realizing you were playing him. Because you miserably failed your recent logistics midterm, but the digital grades system appears to have been altered to state otherwise. Because you have broken every single rule ever written into the rulebook, and somehow, you're still standing."

"Okay, are we done here?"

"Some people are questioning whether or not you still deserve to be here, cadet Swan, but not me," Coulson continued, "Because in spite of your ever-growing attempts to pretend otherwise, you have enormous talent. It's time to allocate it properly."

Callisto looked up at him through lashes of blurring glitter, "What if I don't want to do that? What if I'm perfectly happy with the way things are?"

"I'm getting old, Callisto. This careless facade? Seen it. You're not happy. You hate that you can't figure out your logistics homework, you hate that Piper is scoring higher than you in strategics, and you hate losing marks because you miss all your morning classes when you're too hungover to show up, because since the day you got here, you have been an overachiever. If I gave you this offer back in first year, you would be fighting the other cadets for it. And then something, I don't know what, changed all of that."

"Project Snowfox changed all of that."

He was silent for a long moment, "Project Snowfox never was, and never will be, your responsibility. Get that through your head."

"I thought you wanted me to take on more responsibility?"

Coulson placed an envelope on the table in front of her, "Contract for my offer is right there. You have 24 hours to think it through and give it back to me, signed or otherwise."

With that, Phil Coulson got up and left, closing the door behind him.

He had one more trip to make tonight.

JYOTSNA.

Staying up late for the third night in a row to study for the exam it had tomorrow was truly starting to take a toll on its health.

Unfortunately, if it wanted to move forward with its studies, the young female was going to have to pass this exam, which proved to be a challenge considering that ecology was not one of its strong points. In all honesty, it wasn't sure why it even bothered taking this course when it already exceeded the expectations of almost everyone, completing six PhDs in other courses that were a breeze for it. Science had always been a passion for it, and now, alongside its zoology — branching off into ornithology, ophiology and entomology — oceanography, marine biology, wildlife biology, botany, and human anatomy studies, it was adding a seventh — ecology.

Others would be impressed.

Jyotsna Linu was just annoyed that the study of the natural world was eight times more difficult than the study of animals, or the study of the human body.

Stupid trees.

This was why the only plant it had ever owned was a cactus.

And somehow, it had managed to kill that, too.

Walking from its bathroom into the small living space it called a dorm, the young woman headed to its desk to get more studying done. It was currently two o'clock in the morning — still a few hours before it actually had to take itd exam.

As it moved toward its desk, it noticed from the corner of its eye that its phone had lit up with a message from its friend. It pursed its lips and opened it up.

CALLISTO :: Coming to the party?

It sighed deeply and sent a quick response, ready to set another coffee up for itself to drink before it actually returned to its studying. It was really too late to be awake.

JYOTSNA :: Sorry, I can't . I have an exam tomorrow . Gotta study .

It wasn't entirely a lie, but in all honesty, the redhead would have declined the offer even if it had free time. Parties, gatherings with more than ten people, those just weren't its thing. It had been teased about it before, but it was possible that it would actually rather die than socialize. Those people it considered friends? They had approached it, not the other way around. No way.

Walking back to its kitchen, it began to brew another cup of coffee, mentally preparing itself for the exam it had early the next day. If it wanted a chance at continuing the following semester for its PhD in ecology, it would have to pass this semester final in order to be considered.

They didn't say this academy was the hardest for nothing.

"I swear by everything holy in the world, I'd better not get anything lower than an A for this," it groaned, its words directed to the creature considered to be its roommate in this dorm, for lack of anyone else living there.

Sterling was its emotional support animal, a white ermine it had received when it had first come to New York. A snowy-colored weasel, with a black tail, black eyes, and an attitude that could frighten away a bear.

It smiled, pushed its glasses up, and sat down heavily in its chair, running a hand through the soft coat of its ermine before opening its notebook and textbook both.

Jyotsna did better when it stayed in order of study, it seemed. So first it would write down all of the terms from the first half of this book alongside their definitions. This would help with keeping at least the words memorized so if all else failed, it would at least have the terminology down.

"Holy hell," it mumbled, using the back of its pencil to count the number of words until the twentieth chapter of the textbook, " a hundred and thirty six words."

With a roll of its eyes, it wrote down the first word.

ABIOTIC FACTORS —

It knew this one off the top of its head, as it often came up in its biology courses.

something that is not , will not be , or was never alive
( e.g. temperature )

Quickly scrawling it down, it moved on, blocking out everything around it.

RED QUEEN HYPOTHESIS —
the theory that evolution continues when predator and prey are forced to continue evolve in order to adapt to their counterpart.

MESOGLEA —
the " jelly " found in jellyfish ( cnidaria )

FLAME CELL —
specialized cell for excretion . predecessor to kidneys

GAMETES —
sex , or reproductive , cells

SOMATIC CELL —
all cells other than sex cells

It supposed it had been close to half an hour of deep writing when Sterling suddenly opened his eyes, letting loose a low chirp in the back of his throat. The redhead lifted an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Its voice came out as a croak, to which it reached over to pick up her coffee mug for another sip. "Is it too warm here?"

Its ermine was bright and alert now, and it feared it was due to the temperature in the dorm. It purposely kept it hot due to its . . . unusual circumstances that didn't allow it to function correctly below a staggering ninety-five degrees. Currently the temperature was set to ninety-seven, so it was perfect, but its weasel could only take so much.

However, it seemed as though Sterling wasn't paying it any attention, as he steadily climbed to his feet and continued the obnoxious chirping sound while he scampered toward a certain area of the room. The fur on his back was raised up, and the girl finally got the notion that he was being defensive.

Oh great. It thought grimly. I'm being robbed.

Jyotsna would have been surprised, but honestly hearing about how some creep students kept breaking into other SciTech dorms to steal notes and projects had done enough to make it certain it wasn't in any danger.

That, and it was physically exhausted at this hour.

It turned around and opened its desk drawer, pulling out a can of pepper spray and walking into its living area as Sterling cautiously examined the curtains of the window.

"Alright. Whoever you are, come out right now. Don't you know it's rude to walk in on a lady this early in the morning?"

The redhead was honestly way too tired to deal with this, so if someone decided to jump out and give it a heart attack, it would blind them with its pepper spray, drag them out into the hallway, and leave them to be someone else's problem while they moaned in agony.

It was what these creeps deserved, anyway.

Right as it turned away from the door, however, it heard a very loud gunshot — one that obviously came from the room it had just been in with Sterling. Groaning, it rushed back in, just as its ermine squawked and went flying into it. The current position of its body kept it from falling over, but the force of which its weasel hit nearly cost it the balance it so often lost.

"What the actual—"

Someone stepped out from its linen closet, which had been open already, pistol in hand. Jyotsna pushed Sterling off it — his claws ripping its shirt up in the process — before holding him at arm's length. Its eyes remained glued to the stranger.

This was no student.

Gripping the pepper spray in one hand, the girl prepared to nail the intruder in the eyes and send them screaming, allowing power to surge through its fingertips in preparation for if this person decided to use that pistol, though it doubted they would have the chance.

Humans were quick, it would admit, but Jyotsna was quicker.

"You can stand down, Linu, I'm not here to fight you."

The scientist narrowed its eyes. "Kind of hard to believe with that gun pointed in my direction."

"Really, has a SHIELD agent ever aimed a weapon at you before?" The figure stepped into the light, immediately causing Jyotsna to retract the power it had been about to release in defense.

"Agent Coulson." It stepped back, blinking once in surprise at the sight of the SHIELD agent, one it was very sure was pronounced dead mere months ago. "Not that I'm surprised, but . . . why ?"

"I've been technically dead for the last few months and the first thing you ask me is 'why'?" His gaze flickered around the room, then moved back to the woman before him.

Jyotsna shrugged, allowing for Sterling to wiggle out of its grip and slink up its arm stealthily. "I'm a scientist. It's our favorite question."

The supposedly-dead-but-apparently-not agent raised an eyebrow at it. "Right then, but I actually have a more pressing matter to discuss with you."

"If you've come back from the dead specifically to question why I'm awake right now, I will stop you right there and say I have a final exam to study for. Senior agent or not, testing stops for no one." The woman waved a hand at him, turning to head back into the study room where it had been comfortably seated before it had been spooked into thinking a robbery was occurring.

Coulson followed it, the way his jaw set as he did so, proving to Jyotsna that this was a more urgent matter than he let on. "I'm putting together a unit of agents under my command."

Jyotsna raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay?"

"And you would make a great asset to it."

"Me? On a team of field agents?" The redhead snorted, a noticeable plume of smoke rising from its nostrils. "You'd be better off recruiting the Swans."

"I actually already have." He replied, his expression remaining weirdly calm. "I'm looking for a scientist. Two days ago, Orion asked his professor if carbon monoxide was poisonous. Someone to explain to him why it is, in fact, potentially fatal, would be extremely useful."

Jyotsna's own expression shifted, barely showing its amusement. "That sounds hilarious, but again, why me? There are many better scientists in this academy who are specialized in . . . toxic air."

"Do you know why carbon monoxide is poisonous, Linu?"

It scowled at him. "Of course I do, but it's not my field."

"That's irrelevant to the matter. There are other reasons why you'd be a great addition to this unit." He sharpened his gaze, the intensity hardening slightly.

Jyotsna stared at him for a long moment, wondering what he meant before it paused what it was doing. "You mean my abilities."

"There are few people in our world who aren't cleared for combat in human form, but could decimate an army in their alternate one."

"I told Fury that I wouldn't allow SHIELD to use me as a weapon. It's why I chose the Sci-Tech Academy and not one of the warmongering ones." It grunted.

Coulson sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You aren't a weapon, Linu. Your abilities are unique and useful if we find ourselves in a stressful situation."

It gave him a long look. "You're SHIELD, you live on stressful situations."

"Let me put it into perspective." He finally approached it, standing a good five feet away now. "Say Orion is captured while on a mission."

"Orion isn't that stupid."

He ignored the comment. "Would you use your abilities to get into wherever he's being contained and get him out? Alive?"

Jyotsna rolled its eyes. "It depends."

"On what?"

"How likely is Callisto to kill me if I don't?"

He stepped closer, making it back up one step with a scowl. "Your abilities are an asset to SHIELD. This unit will have the only two people you actually like on it, you are there primarily for science purposes — to make sure Orion doesn't kill us all by accident — and the only time you'd need to enter combat is in heavy fire."

Jyotsna exhaled sharply. "It's not just the fact that I don't want to fight. You've read my file, Coulson. You know that I have no control when I take my other form. I could be the reason someone dies. I won't risk that. Not for SHIELD."

"I've also read that you have anchors while in that other form, Linu. Barton, Romanoff, they both calm you down. And the Swans—"

"Callisto," it corrected. "I tolerate and accept Callisto."

"Agent Swan is part of this unit. She'll be there to help you."

Jyotsna narrowed its eyes slightly, sharply letting out a dark plume of smoke. "Fine then." Its gaze glittered in the light of the window. "But you'd better be right, Coulson. Because if I end up being the reason one of your own people is dead, their blood will be on your hands."

CALLISTO.

"Here."

Three days later, Callisto walked into Phil's new office on his shiny new aircraft, heels clicking loudly against the floor, and slapped the signed contract onto his desk.

The girl who stood there could almost have been mistaken to be an entirely different person from the girl half-passed-out in the Hub that night. Almost.

Her long hair was sleek and shiny, pulled back into a ponytail. Vixen eyes perfectly lined, lashes cleanly curled. She was dressed for combat: fitted halter top, black shorts with her firearms and other weapons secured safely to the belt. Her combat boots had three-inch heels to them, which someone other than her would've been called out for showing up to a mission in.

Coulson looked up at her, then at the contract on the desk, then back at her, "I gave you 24 hours. It's been over 48."

"But you're going to let it slide and take me anyway," Callisto said with a shrug, "Because obviously you need me. And if you claim otherwise, I'm prepared to fight you on it."

He stared at her and didn't say anything. She held eye contact, and for a moment she almost expected him to get angry, throw a fit about protocols and deadlines and whatnot.

But Coulson chuckled, taking the paper from his desk, "There it is. Snowfox got her teeth and claws back. Welcome aboard."

JYOTSNA.

Two and a half days following that encounter with Agent Coulson, Jyotsna exited its car, gathering the papers it had brought along with it. Locking the vehicle, it left the parking lot behind and slowly headed toward the aircraft garage where it had been told to come via a text message.

Sterling was sitting on its shoulder, nose twitching as he looked around curiously at everything around them. He, of course, wouldn't be left behind on something like this.

The scientist passed through the gates and moved toward the garage where it assumed it was supposed to go, crossing the runway and walking inside the building to get a good look at the plane.

"They always have to be extra dramatic with their vehicles, don't they?" It muttered under its breath, crossing its arms and walking forward until it reached the entrance to the ungodly cargo aircraft. It bypassed all human figures without being noticed and stepped aboard, looking around. "He said the lab was . . . straight ahead and to the right . . . right?"

Deciding to follow its gut, Jyotsna walked toward the center of the aircraft, inhaling sharply to catch the scent of anyone familiar. When it stepped through the door and into the laboratory, the smell of rubbing alcohol and sterilized equipment told it that this was the right place. Right away, it was aware of the two other individuals who occupied the area, assuming they were the other scientists Coulson had mentioned in the message. An engineer and a biochemist to go with the redhead's wildlife and biological studies.

How delightful.

As it entered, the male of the two strangers turned around to face it. "You must be Linu."

"Don't call me that. It's annoying enough when Coulson does it. My name's Jyotsna." It looked down at its phone one more time before pocketing it and placing its papers down on a work desk, next to a box that it noticed had its name on it. "What's this?"

The female scientist shrugged her shoulders. "An agent brought it in and said it was for you. Something about a live animal and—"

"—under no circumstances are you allowed to let Agent Swan see it."

Jyotsna narrowed its eyes and pulled the top off the box, blinking twice as it observed the eight-legged arachnid which scuttled around within. ". . . yeah, I see why Cal shouldn't see it." It muttered, carefully placing the top back on the box and letting out a deep sigh.

CALLISTO.

Callisto headed for the lab next after Coulson told her to make a visit there. She knocked twice on the transparent glass door before sliding it open and walking in to see the only two unfamiliar faces on the team, along with one of her friends.

"You have to consider the potential radioactive reaction that follows the cataclysmic impact on the—"

"Yes, I did, and all the theoretical runs are right here, if we can find a way to induce the atoms here with a negative charge before—"

"But that's not the problem! Before even looking at the biochemical reactor we have to figure out how to—"

She glanced down on her phone where she had screenshotted the list of team members that Coulson had sent her, "Uh, agents Fitzsimmons?"

"Oh yes, that's us! I'm Simmons, Jemma Simmons, that one's Fitz," the brunette with the British accent looked up, "Agent Swan, isn't it? We've heard about you, you're the third-year Ops girl who fast-tracked and got an assignment pre-graduation. Of course, there were rumors about how that happened but don't worry, no one at sci-tech really bought into them, as scientists we like to trust the integrity of the systems set in place to ensure—"

"Right, yeah, that's me, amazing as always to hear my name recognized," Callisto tilted her head, "And Jyotsna! Hey, what happened to your exam this morning? You know, the one you skipped my birthday for?"

The redhead who was holding a box looked over, and Callisto noticed the solid white weasel eating a cranberry on its shoulder, "Yeah, I got a very wonderful visit at three am that just . . . well . . . let's just say I don't have an exam now." It rubbed the back of its neck, before placing its hand on the suspicious box it held close to its chest.

Callisto laughed slightly, "3am? Coulson drove to the Hub at 2am to corner Orion and I and then drove back to the Sci-Tech academy to recruit you?"

"That's exactly what he did, and he almost shot my weasel when he came flying out of nowhere because SHIELD agents don't know how to knock."

Jyotsna looked back down at the box, placing it at the counter as Jemma came back, handing Callisto one of the new communication earpieces, "There you go, you're all set. Happy Birthday, by the way, we heard about that scandalous party at the Hub."

"Yeah, we would have loved to come if it weren't for the fact that all your invitations for anyone in the science department seemed to have been misplaced," Fitz pitched in.

"I assumed the nerds all had a game of Dungeons and Dragons to be at," Callisto smiled sweetly in response, "My bad."

Fitz opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted as the glass door slid open again, revealing none other than Agent Grant Ward.

The man raised an eyebrow as he walked in, flicker of surprise flashing across his expression when he saw Callisto among them. He cleared his throat, "I was told to come see Fitzsimmons?"

"Ah yes, that's us!"

The two of them scrambled on to help Ward with his headset, all while Callisto took a moment to stand and blink in shock. Ward was a specialist. Well, technically she was training to become a specialist too, but Ward was . . . definitely less people-oriented than she was. She didn't doubt that Coulson would want an agent like him on the team . . . but why would he take the offer?

"So," He came up to her as the three scientists got together to discuss something neither of them could understand, "No one told me you were also on this team."

"Same to you. I thought you weren't a fan of teamwork?" She raised an eyebrow.

"And I thought you weren't a fan of field work," He countered.

"I'm in my self-development era," She said sweetly.

Ward gave her a pointed look, "I'll believe it when I see it."

And without another word, he brushed past her.

ORION.

One of the largest SHIELD headquarters in the world had turned into a loud and chaotic nightmare of a madhouse all because Orion Swan's younger sister never really grew out of her rebellious phase.

"Look at that, if it isn't the bigger of the two Swans."

Lunaria Volkova, dark hair and feline smile as deadly as usual tapped him on the shoulder as Orion turned around.

Orion rolled his eyes, "Oh, you're here too. I thought you two would be a little bit above this immature bullshit."

Lunaria slapped him on the arm, "Watch the way you talk about women, kid."

"Don't call me kid, I'm twenty-four."

"Dear fucking God," Lunaria rolled her eyes, "Swan, don't underestimate your sister. She's smart, and she's not so self-centered as to not show up to her own party. We'll find her."

CALLISTO.

Callisto Swan, the younger sister, was in fact, fucking a stranger somewhere.

. . . Well, not a stranger.

"Fuck, Swan," Agent Grant Ward groaned as he got up from the velvet chaise in the lounge two floors above the party, "You're not going to be able to do shit on our Paris mission tomorrow."

"You know that we work through the pain in our field of work," the girl chuckled as she reached for the half-finished glass of Rosé on the table.

Locks of raven-black hair, usually long and shiny, were drenched in sweat and plastered to her face, where mascara smudged dark and smoky around fox-like eyes.

The girl groaned in protest, pulling him along as she lay back down, "It's my birthday, let me enjoy it. Plus, you're not getting me back to dorms at Ops, security's going to be up by now."

"Fine, I'm taking you to my place," he tossed her the silver dress she had been wearing earlier, "Good that I can keep an eye on you until tomorrow, actually."

"Your place? Doesn't that sound fun."

ORION.

Someone seriously should have made a guests list, and informed Orion of it before he opened the front gates of the Hub.

"Good evening, Agent Swan," Phil Coulson smiled as he walked through, "Or should I say, good morning. You know, since it's now 1:30am, in the morning."

Orion blinked, "You're alive?"

"I never get tired of hearing that. Tell me Agent Swan, is your sister in here by any chance?"

Shit. Wrong move. He cleared his throat, hoping to be able to just come up with a reasonable excuse, "Sir, I can explain. The only reason she—"

But Coulson interrupted him, "Save it, Swan. I'm not here to play police officer. But I do need to see your sister. I have a career proposition."

CALLISTO.

"Miss Swan, I don't think I have to remind you that we have rules in place at SHIELD regulating fraternization between agents, much less between full-fledged agents and academy students."

Callisto took the water that Coulson offered her, "I thought that I technically am an agent, I did get the badge and everything."

"You know you're still completing your training. Speaking of which, should we also go into the curfew regulations we have for students, which you are not exempt from?"

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that, by the way, you know that most post-secondary institutions don't have stupid rules about when you are or aren't allowed to leave campus—"

"I'm also high."

"Shall we go over our protocols about substance use, too?"

"Agent Volkova drowns a bottle of vodka every night, pumps herself with so drugs that she carries fake tests with her, and fucks a new guy every hour or so, but I'm the one who's breaking protocols?"

"Agent Volkova is an ex-assassin who's made three of our SHIELD psychiatrists quit their jobs and move to the other end of the world, do you really want to end up like her?"

Callisto put the bottle of water down. Crossed her arms, "I think I might be halfway there, already. Obviously you think so, it's why you've let me be for this long."

"Excuse me?"

"Agent Swan, do take a look at yourself before arguing."

Callisto fell silent for a moment before rolling her eyes and making a move to get up, "Alright then, I guess that makes your decision easier. Good day."

"Sit down."

Callisto stared at him silently. Crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm putting together a command unit," Coulson said, "And I want you on it."

"A command unit," She repeated, "You just said I'm not even a full agent yet, why me?"

"Okay, are we done here?"

Callisto looked up at him through lashes of blurring glitter, "What if I don't want to do that? What if I'm perfectly happy with the way things are?"

"Project Snowfox changed all of that."

He was silent for a long moment, "Project Snowfox never was, and never will be, your responsibility. Get that through your head."

"I thought you wanted me to take on more responsibility?"

Coulson placed an envelope on the table in front of her, "Contract for my offer is right there. You have 24 hours to think it through and give it back to me, signed or otherwise."

With that, Phil Coulson got up and left, closing the door behind him.

He had one more trip to make tonight.

JAYE.

Staying up late for the third night in a row to study for the exam it had tomorrow was truly starting to take a toll on its health.

Unfortunately, if it wanted to move forward with its studies, the young agender was going to have to pass this exam, which proved to be a challenge considering that ecology was not one of its strong points. In all honesty, it wasn't sure why it even bothered taking this course when it already exceeded the expectations of almost everyone, completing six PhDs in other courses that were a breeze for it. Science had always been a passion for it, and now, alongside its zoology — branching off into ornithology, ophiology and entomology — oceanography, marine biology, wildlife biology, botany, and human anatomy studies, it was adding a seventh — ecology.

Others would be impressed.

Jaye Linu was just annoyed that the study of the natural world was eight times more difficult than the study of animals, or the study of the human body.

Stupid trees.

This was why the only plant it had ever owned was a cactus.

And somehow, it had managed to kill that, too.

As it moved toward its desk, it noticed from the corner of its eye that its phone had lit up with a message from its friend. It pursed its lips and opened it up.

CALLISTO :: Coming to the party?

It sighed deeply and sent a quick response, ready to set another coffee up for itself to drink before it actually returned to its studying. It was really too late to be awake.

JAYE :: Sorry, I can't . I have an exam tomorrow . Gotta study .

They didn't say this academy was the hardest for nothing.

Cracker was technically its emotional support animal, a small herring gull it had received when it had first come to New York. A snowy-colored seagull, with black eyes and an attitude that could frighten away a bear.

It smiled, pushed its glasses up, and sat down heavily in its chair, running a hand through the soft feathers of its seagull before opening its notebook and textbook both.

Jaye did better when it stayed in order of study, it seemed. So first it would write down all of the terms from the first half of this book alongside their definitions. This would help with keeping at least the words memorized so if all else failed, it would at least have the terminology down.

"Holy hell," it mumbled, using the back of its pencil to count the number of words until the twentieth chapter of the textbook, " a hundred and thirty six words."

With a roll of its eyes, it wrote down the first word.

ABIOTIC FACTORS —

It knew this one off the top of its head, as it often came up in its biology courses.

something that is not , will not be , or was never alive
( e.g. temperature )

Quickly scrawling it down, it moved on, blocking out everything around it.

RED QUEEN HYPOTHESIS —
the theory that evolution continues when predator and prey are forced to continue evolve in order to adapt to their counterpart.

MESOGLEA —
the " jelly " found in jellyfish ( cnidaria )

FLAME CELL —
specialized cell for excretion . predecessor to kidneys

GAMETES —
sex , or reproductive , cells

SOMATIC CELL —
all cells other than sex cells

It supposed it had been close to half an hour of deep writing when Cracker suddenly opened his eyes, letting loose a low chirp in the back of his throat. The redhead lifted an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Its voice came out as a croak, to which it reached over to pick up her coffee mug for another sip. "Is it too warm here?"

Its seagull was bright and alert now, and it feared it was due to the temperature in the dorm. It purposely kept it hot due to its . . . unusual circumstances that didn't allow it to function correctly below a staggering ninety-five degrees. Currently the temperature was set to ninety-seven, so it was perfect, but its weasel could only take so much.

However, it seemed as though Cracker wasn't paying it any attention, as he steadily climbed to his feet and continued the obnoxious chirping sound while he waddled toward a certain area of the room. The feathers on his back was raised up, and the creature finally got the notion that he was being defensive.

Oh great. It thought grimly. I'm being robbed.

Jaye would have been surprised, but honestly hearing about how some creep students kept breaking into other SciTech dorms to steal notes and projects had done enough to make it certain it wasn't in any danger.

That, and it was physically exhausted at this hour.

It turned around and opened its desk drawer, pulling out a can of pepper spray and walking into its living area as Cracker cautiously examined the curtains of the window.

"Alright. Whoever you are, come out right now. Don't you know it's rude to walk in on someone this early in the morning?"

It was what these creeps deserved, anyway.

Right as it turned away from the door, however, it heard a very loud gunshot — one that obviously came from the room it had just been in with Cracker. Groaning, it rushed back in, just as its seagull squawked and went flying into it. The current position of its body kept it from falling over, but the force of which its bird hit nearly cost it the balance it so often lost.

"What the actual—"

Someone stepped out from its linen closet, which had been open already, pistol in hand. Jaye pulled Cracker off it — his claws ripping its shirt up in the process — before holding him at arm's length. Its eyes remained glued to the stranger.

This was no student.

Gripping the pepper spray in one hand, the mutant prepared to nail the intruder in the eyes and send them screaming, allowing power to surge through its fingertips in preparation for if this person decided to use that pistol, though it doubted they would have the chance.

Humans were quick, it would admit, but Jaye was quicker.

"You can stand down, Linu, I'm not here to fight you."

The scientist narrowed its eyes. "Kind of hard to believe with that gun pointed in my direction."

"Really, has a SHIELD agent ever aimed a weapon at you before?" The figure stepped into the light, immediately causing Jaye to retract the power it had been about to release in defense.

"Agent Coulson." It stepped back, blinking once in surprise at the sight of the SHIELD agent, one it was very sure was pronounced dead mere months ago. "Not that I'm surprised, but . . . why ?"

"I've been technically dead for the last few months and the first thing you ask me is 'why'?" His gaze flickered around the room, then moved back to the woman before him.

Jaye shrugged, allowing for Cracker to wiggle out of its grip and creep up its arm stealthily. "I'm a scientist. It's our favorite question."

The supposedly-dead-but-apparently
-not agent raised an eyebrow at it. "Right then, but I actually have a more pressing matter to discuss with you."

"If you've come back from the dead specifically to question why I'm awake right now, I will stop you right there and say I have a final exam to study for. Senior agent or not, testing stops for no one." The creature waved a hand at him, turning to head back into the study room where it had been comfortably seated before it had been spooked into thinking a robbery was occurring.

Coulson followed it, the way his jaw set as he did so, proving to Jaye that this was a more urgent matter than he let on. "I'm putting together a unit of agents under my command."

Jaye raised an eyebrow at him. "Okay?"

"And you would make a great asset to it."

"Me? On a team of field agents?" The redhead snorted, a noticeable plume of smoke rising from its nostrils. "You'd be better off recruiting the Swans."

Jaye's own expression shifted, barely showing its amusement. "That sounds hilarious, but again, why me? There are many better scientists in this academy who are specialized in . . . toxic air."

"Do you know why carbon monoxide is poisonous, Linu?"

It scowled at him. "Of course I do, but it's not my field."

"That's irrelevant to the matter. There are other reasons why you'd be a great addition to this unit." He sharpened his gaze, the intensity hardening slightly.

Jaye stared at him for a long moment, wondering what he meant before it paused what it was doing. "You mean my abilities."

"There are few people in our world who aren't cleared for combat in human form, but could decimate an army in their alternate one."

"I told Fury that I wouldn't allow SHIELD to use me as a weapon. It's why I chose the Sci-Tech Academy and not one of the warmongering ones." It grunted.

Coulson sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You aren't a weapon, Linu. Your abilities are unique and useful if we find ourselves in a stressful situation."

It gave him a long look. "You're SHIELD, you live on stressful situations."

"Let me put it into perspective." He finally approached it, standing a good five feet away now. "Say Orion is captured while on a mission."

"Orion isn't that stupid."

He ignored the comment. "Would you use your abilities to get into wherever he's being contained and get him out? Alive?"

Jaye rolled its eyes. "It depends."

"On what?"

"How likely is Callisto to kill me if I don't?"

Jaye exhaled sharply. "It's not just the fact that I don't want to fight. You've read my file, Coulson. You know that I have no control when I take my other form. I could be the reason someone dies. I won't risk that. Not for SHIELD."

"I've also read that you have anchors while in that other form, Linu. Barton, Romanoff, they both calm you down. And the Swans—"

"Callisto," it corrected. "I tolerate and accept Callisto."

"Agent Swan is part of this unit. She'll be there to help you."

Jaye narrowed its eyes slightly, sharply letting out a dark plume of smoke. "Fine then." Its gaze glittered in the light of the window. "But you'd better be right, Coulson. Because if I end up being the reason one of your own people is dead, their blood will be on your hands."

CALLISTO.

"Here."

Three days later, Callisto walked into Phil's new office on his shiny new aircraft, heels clicking loudly against the floor, and slapped the signed contract onto his desk.

The girl who stood there could almost have been mistaken to be an entirely different person from the girl half-passed-out in the Hub that night. Almost.

Coulson looked up at her, then at the contract on the desk, then back at her, "I gave you 24 hours. It's been over 48."

"But you're going to let it slide and take me anyway," Callisto said with a shrug, "Because obviously you need me. And if you claim otherwise, I'm prepared to fight you on it."

He stared at her and didn't say anything. She held eye contact, and for a moment she almost expected him to get angry, throw a fit about protocols and deadlines and whatnot.

But Coulson chuckled, taking the paper from his desk, "There it is. Snowfox got her teeth and claws back. Welcome aboard."

JAYE.

Two and a half days following that encounter with Agent Coulson, Jaye exited its car, gathering the papers it had brought along with it. Locking the vehicle, it left the parking lot behind and slowly headed toward the aircraft garage where it had been told to come via a text message.

Cracker was sitting on its shoulder, nose twitching as he looked around curiously at everything around them. He, of course, wouldn't be left behind on something like this.

The scientist passed through the gates and moved toward the garage where it assumed it was supposed to go, crossing the runway and walking inside the building to get a good look at the plane.

Deciding to follow its gut, Jaye walked toward the center of the aircraft, inhaling sharply to catch the scent of anyone familiar. When it stepped through the door and into the laboratory, the smell of rubbing alcohol and sterilized equipment told it that this was the right place. Right away, it was aware of the two other individuals who occupied the area, assuming they were the other scientists Coulson had mentioned in the message. An engineer and a biochemist to go with the redhead's wildlife and biological studies.

How delightful.

As it entered, the male of the two strangers turned around to face it. "You must be Linu."

"Don't call me that. It's annoying enough when Coulson does it. My name's Jaye." It looked down at its phone one more time before pocketing it and placing its papers down on a work desk, next to a box that it noticed had its name on it. "What's this?"

The female scientist shrugged her shoulders. "An agent brought it in and said it was for you. Something about a live animal and—"

"—under no circumstances are you allowed to let Agent Swan see it."

Jaye narrowed its eyes and pulled the top off the box, blinking twice as it observed the eight-legged arachnid which scuttled around within. ". . . yeah, I see why Cal shouldn't see it." It muttered, carefully placing the top back on the box and letting out a deep sigh.

CALLISTO.

"You have to consider the potential radioactive reaction that follows the cataclysmic impact on the—"

"Yes, I did, and all the theoretical runs are right here, if we can find a way to induce the atoms here with a negative charge before—"

"But that's not the problem! Before even looking at the biochemical reactor we have to figure out how to—"

She glanced down on her phone where she had screenshotted the list of team members that Coulson had sent her, "Uh, agents Fitzsimmons?"

"Right, yeah, that's me, amazing as always to hear my name recognized," Callisto tilted her head, "And Jaye! Hey, what happened to your exam this morning? You know, the one you skipped my birthday for?"

The redhead who was holding a box looked over, and Callisto noticed the seagull eating a cranberry on its shoulder, "Yeah, I got a very wonderful visit at three am that just . . . well . . . let's just say I don't have an exam now." It rubbed the back of its neck, before placing its hand on the suspicious box it held close to its chest.

Callisto laughed slightly, "3am? Coulson drove to the Hub at 2am to corner Orion and I and then drove back to the Sci-Tech academy to recruit you?"

"That's exactly what he did, and he almost shot my bird when he came flying out of nowhere because SHIELD agents don't know how to knock."

Jaye looked back down at the box, placing it at the counter as Jemma came back, handing Callisto one of the new communication earpieces, "There you go, you're all set. Happy Birthday, by the way, we heard about that scandalous party at the Hub."

"Yeah, we would have loved to come if it weren't for the fact that all your invitations for anyone in the science department seemed to have been misplaced," Fitz pitched in.

"I assumed the nerds all had a game of Dungeons and Dragons to be at," Callisto smiled sweetly in response, "My bad."

Fitz opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted as the glass door slid open again, revealing none other than Agent Grant Ward.

The man raised an eyebrow as he walked in, flicker of surprise flashing across his expression when he saw Callisto among them. He cleared his throat, "I was told to come see Fitzsimmons?"

"Ah yes, that's us!"

"So," He came up to her as the three scientists got together to discuss something neither of them could understand, "No one told me you were also on this team."

"Same to you. I thought you weren't a fan of teamwork?" She raised an eyebrow.

"And I thought you weren't a fan of field work," He countered.

"I'm in my self-development era," She said sweetly.

Ward gave her a pointed look, "I'll believe it when I see it."

And without another word, he brushed past her.