Revamped!

[It just hit me that I'm already at fifty chapters. Doing daily updates causes you to lose track of your story]. [2020: So wise, past me, so wise … but I'm doing weekly updates for SA and, even then, I'm lost].


Chapter 49: Symbiosis Part Two

Sorokin's Lab - Antarctica - 8:14 AM

Emily flies through the building, following a blueprint that Jarvis displayed in the corner of her faceplate. Her mind is in such a frenzy - her fiancé is infected with some unknown virus, she has to send mission details to Angela and Xavier, and now she's hearing some static in her ear which is probably Merida or James asking if she copies.

"I copy, I copy!" Emily screams back.

Although she has the directions of where in the building to go, Emily still makes turns that are too strong that the walls graze her arms or she hits her head. She curses aloud since she doesn't care as to who hears. If anything, Daniel could hear it and have a beacon of hope that someone is getting him.

"Jarvis, do what Merida or James said and send whatever Angela and Xavier," she orders.

Jarvis sends the mission to get Sergei to the twins. Emily picks up speed and nearly passes the lab. As she looks inside, her scans are picking up the contamination and giving her the analytics as one big jumbled chemical formula that she will need time to read over and understand.

"Jarvis, clear the air and open this now," Emily orders.

Once the door opens, Emily hovers in and sees Daniel sitting against the wall. He's coughing and sweating. She reads his vitals and sees that they're dropping but he has a rising fever. Before she deals with him, Emily looks at the countertop workspace and sees the redacted papers explaining the experiment. Instead of opening her suit to insert them like a file to its folder and risk getting contaminated, she scans them. There has to be something useful within the barred lines.

"Hey, babe," Emily says as she helps him up and eventually picks him up. "Don't you dare resist because you're coming out of here with me."

Daniel doesn't respond which Emily tries not to make the worse of. Either Daniel is too sick to talk or he would much rather be with his fiancé than Merida which is why he forced her out. Or he said something and she didn't register it. Her optimism leans towards the latter.

"Don't blow up on me!" Emily exclaims as she begins flying out at top speed with him in her arms. Her mouth quivers with oncoming sobs. "Please…"

"How am I supposed to blow up with you yakking in my ear?" Daniel mutters back.

"Humour. That's a good sign. Bless you for maintaining a sardonic sense of humour during a time of crisis."

-o-

Above Birdsville, Australia - 6:34 AM

Angela and Xavier are on a separate jet after having to give the others their quinjet, following a lead that SHIELD had on Sergei. Out of the entire team, Merida was the only one who has seen Sergei before. But thanks to the lead SHIELD had, they captured a horrible quality photo that has been enhanced with the use of their technology. Once Angela and Xavier's quinjet receive the photo, they pull it up and are surprised.

"That's our target?" Angela questions, not impressed with this man being their match.

He was a man you would typically see on those shows about millionaires and their million-dollar properties. Based on what Merida said, he's pretty naïve when it came to strategy so it should be easy to get to him once his brigade of personal soldiers is gone.

"This'll be quick…" Xavier mutters as he gets connected with the rest of his team. "Someone talk to me, what's the problem?"

Emily: Daniel's inhaled a monster!

Angela and Xavier don't know what they just heard. Little do they know that when Merida was describing to the one in Antarctica what happened to Daniel, she used the same words. What the twins get out of that odd statement is that Daniel is the one who's in trouble but they're just not sure about why or how he's in trouble.

"Isn't that what he does best?" Angela guesses. "Scratch that, we're on Sergei's trail. He was easy to follow since he's on an unauthorized takeoff towards Birdsville, Australia."

-o-

PNG Quinjet - 8:47 AM

Emily and Daniel zip through the hallways of the laboratory. Emily struggles to keep her focus on the readings of Daniel's vitals on one end of her faceplate all while following the blueprint for the route out of here that's on the other side. Lucky for her, Daniel's alive enough to tell her when they're about to crash into a wall by coughing for an unhealthy and solid five minutes.

"Behind you!" James exclaims as he approaches Emily. He flies above her, picking up speed until he's in front of her. "Watch his vitals and just follow me!"

Emily nods as she gets Jarvis to close the blueprints of this place and go on autopilot following James. She watches Daniel's body temperature, breathing rate, and pulse. The numbers keep on flickering which makes Emily nervous.

James blasts at an approaching window and flies through. Merida, flying the quinjet, is out front with their quinjet hangar door open. The moment they fly in, Merida closes the hangar door and starts flying. She puts the quinjet on autopilot and top speed as she unbuckles and runs over to them.

James grows to his normal size and tears off his SHIELD snowsuit. He immediately opens one of the arm panels from Emily's suit and starts connecting wires to it just to get a look at the experiment that plagued Daniel with the use of the quinjet's holographic features. Emily puts Daniel in one of the seats and disassembles her suit as Merida gets all the first-aid essentials that may be necessary.

-o-

Above Birdsville, Australia - 6:52 AM

Angela and Xavier spot the jet and hover nearby, changing their controls and connecting their system to Sergei's.

"0-130537 victor, this is by the order of the SHIELD quinjet parked on your 3," Xavier tells Sergei. "You are ordered to turn to a heading of zero-niner-zero and drop your landing gear. Now."

The two of them are expecting a response but there's nothing. Angela double-checks the connection and it's working fine.

"No response," Angela says.

"Plan B," Xavier says as he unbuckles his seatbelt.

"What's -?" Angela starts before getting cut off by Sergei's jet firing at them.

Sirens inside the quinjet start blaring as Angela grips the controls and starts firing back. Xavier grabs his shield and straps it onto his back. Angela quickly turns the jet around to avoid getting blown out of the sky, but it only gets worse.

"Severe damages in the engine. Land the quinjet now or face automatic landing."

"No, no, no!" Angela exclaims, trying to override it but the system won't let her. "I have to set her down!"

"Give me about thirty more seconds," Xavier says.

"For what?"

"Plan B."