The Perfect One

by choejhulkp9

SHIELD. The Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division protects the world from a much weirder one. But they soon meet someone with a unique ability set that makes him a force of nature. One of Earth's mightiest heroes will turn into its last hope from total annihilation. You don't mess with Inhuman perfection.

20. Memories

Hello, everyone. Here is the Perfect One Chapter 20. Will, Coulson, and the team get another lead on Project Centipede and it's time to take the fight to them and really get some answers. That's not all as the walls in Coulson's mind begin to crack and he begins to remember what happened after Loki stabbed him before the Battle of New York. Thankfully, he knows a psychic that can help him. Enjoy!

The Perfect One: Memories

Atlantic City, New Jersey: November 2013

The cool fall weather of November was a nice welcome sight for Will as he loved this time of year. Halloween was over but there were still some horror movies being played on TV and some Halloween decorations were still up around the neighborhood alongside front yards piled high with dead leaves. Ah, the fall was a magical time of year in New Jersey, and he was glad to be enjoying it. After their work in helping the BPRD, now known to the team as the Midnight Suns, in preventing an end of the world disaster by a mystically resurrected Rasputin and world ending Cthulhu monster, the team returned with the BPRD to New Jersey. The team had some time to rest and refit gear so Will spent that time wisely.

He picked up Goose from his friends who were babysitting him and called Crystal down from Attilan to spend some time with her. With Attilan being a domed secret city on the moon, it only had known a single warm-weather artificial environment that was conducive to growing the vegetation they relied on for their food. That meant they missed out on Fall and Winter and while jarring they each had their charms that made them enjoyable. When Crystal experienced her first winter she was definitely shocked for sure as her only experience with snow and ice were her elemental powers. It was kind of like seeing a child have their first experience with snow. There was a lot of shocked looks followed by curious stares that led to excitement and playing in said snow…before they rushed to get inside because they got too excited and didn't put on enough warm clothes. It was rather cute and a valuable learning experience, but she now knew how to properly enjoy the winter. Bundled up in her warm earth clothes, playing in the snow for a bit and if they're at Will's house Lockjaw can play with her in the backyard as the big dog loves the snow. Then after they warm up by a fireplace with some hot cocoa, snuggling in warm blankets and sweaters while they watch holiday movies.

The fall was also nice as the humidity of the summer washed away, replaced by the cool fall breezes and the perfect time for apple picking. That's where Will was with Crystal and Goose. He took her to a farm about an hour from Atlantic City where they were able to go into a grove and pick apples. Other families were there as well picking apples, going into pumpkin patches, enjoying the freshly made apple cider and apple cider donuts and the small farm animals in the petting zoo. Crystal walked alongside Will, dressed up in some nice boots, comfortable jeans, and a warm jacket with a scarf around her neck enjoying a cup of warm apple cider. Will was dressed up as usual but had on a thicker jacket to help with the breeze and cold weather and had Goose perched up on his head wearing an adorable cat turkey sweater and a small scarf around her neck. The sight of the cat in the sweater and scarf was an adorable sight on its own but adding on i0t perched up on its owner head even more so. It only got better when Will walked over to a low enough branch. Goose would reach up and paw at an apple until it fell down at which point Will would catch it in the bag they had.

"Another nice pick, Goose." Will praised, scratching the Flerken on the head and making her purr. Crystal chuckled before walking over and doing the same. "We've definitely got enough apples for one amazing pie."

"That sounds amazing and I'm glad I'm not the only Inhuman who gets to taste what apples are like. Those seeds you gave us have been doing really well and everyone enjoys them. That along with the fish, chicken, and eggs they can now eat." Crystal told him.

"Good I'm glad. As much as I enjoy kale and green juices, I don't think I'd last long on a pure vegetable/fruit diet. I'm not sure how the Inhumans on Attilan were able to survive for as long as you have." Will pointed out as they kept walking through the apple grove. He walked over to another tree and Goose pawed at another apple until it fell in his bag.

"You get to the point where your tastebuds don't really care. And the cooks do what they can to be creative but thank god you showed up. After eating my first taste of spaghetti and meatballs I can never go back." Crystal admitted causing Will to chuckle. "I swear, if things got worse Attilan might have considering going Soylent Green."

"Ok, I know you're joking but I'm proud of you for that reference. Glad to see you're settling in on earth. Maybe one day we could make it official." Will kissed her on the head and she leaned in to him.

"Here's hoping." She said to him as the two continued to enjoy their time together. Unbeknownst to them they were being monitored by a SHIELD team although it wasn't exactly sanctioned or legal or authorized by SHIELD. Just some noisy people who wanted to know more and were bored. Set up in a SHIELD van stationed in the massive parking lot across from the farm grove was Skye, Fitz-Simmons, and Ward though he was there begrudgingly.

Skye brought them along, partly as a joke as she and the others were curious to see what Will did in his spare time and hopefully to get some more answers to him. Despite his openness with the team, he kept a fair amount of himself hidden or vague. Plus, they wanted to see what this badass super SHIELD agent got up to in his spare time. He worked on his own to take down the rest of Quantum, took down a Maggia sector in Los Angeles, destroyed several drug cartels, and took down two of the largest human trafficking and drug operations in Europe and Asia respectively and the latter two were before he was even made an official agent. He was such a legend in SHIELD that had even May stumped in figuring it out. He was super close with Coulson and if the rumors spread around SHIELD were true than he was close to Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Basically, he was a giant mystery, they were noisy, and wanted to know more.

"Oh, Goose is so cute." Jemma squeaked as she watched the camera feed and saw her perched up on Will's head, pawing at an apple and causing it to fall into his bag. That's when she saw the others looking at her funny. "What? I like Goose."

"Ok…" Skye muttered as she used the controls to control the camera position. Given the public location and the fact that this wasn't an actual assignment or mission they couldn't use Fitz's drones, so Skye just hacked into the farm's/orchard's security cameras. Who knew the orchard had so many security cameras, but the guess was the place did well enough to get the security cameras and they were mainly around the orchard and main reception area. They were fairly rudimentary and basic with them watching the perimeter. The kind of cameras with grainy pictures from too far away and no audio capacity but for the group it was enough to do their little spying.

"Why exactly are we doing this?" Grant asked.

"Two parts. One, to find out more about what Will does when he's not with SHIELD. The guy it the biggest enigma wrapped in a puzzle box I've ever seen and it's crazy. I know my access to SHIELD information is restricted with my little wristband…" Skye jiggled the security band on her wrist that restricted her access. "…but there's next to nothing about him except his deeds and if they're too be believed than he's practically the boogeyman of SHIELD with a license to kill."

"And the second part?" Grant wondered.

"There was nothing better to do." Skye admitted causing Grant to shake his head in disbelief.

"You know you could just ask him." Grant pointed out.

"Believe me, I have but Will tends to deflect. Don't get me wrong, he's way more open that you are Ward, but he keeps a fair amount to himself." Skye replied.

"And that's a bad thing. We all keep things to ourselves." Fitz stated.

"Fitz is right. And less we forget you kept your working with the Rising Tide and your ex-boyfriend behind our backs." Simmons added.

"Fair enough, I suppose. But this is different." Skye defended herself.

"How is this different?" Ward wondered.

"Because Will is definitely hiding something from us." Skye swore when they heard a phone ring. Everyone checked their phone, and it was Simmons' phone that was ringing but when she saw the caller ID she freaked out.

"Oh god…" She showed them her phone so they could see it was Will calling her. "What do I do?"

"Answer it but don't let on that we're here." Skye told her.

"What do I say?" Simmons asked.

"Tell him we're back on the BUS." Fitz suggested and Simmons nodded. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves before she answered.

"Hi, Will. This is a pleasant call. To what do I owe this surprise?" Simmons asked, laying it on a bit thick. The others could tell she was nervous and given her proclivity to being bad at lying they knew it was only a matter of time before she broke.

"Hey, Simmons. Unless you, Skye, Fitz, and Ward are comfortable in the van, than you four can come outside and enjoy the orchard. Crystal and I don't care." Will told her.

"Uh…thank you for the lovely offer, Will but I'm—we're not near you. We're back on the BUS. You know, keeping busy. Stocking up supplies. Waiting for Coulson to give us our next mission. Doing our jobs. You know how it is." Simmons told him, but she was just rambling.

"Yeah, I know you think that sounded believable, but it didn't." Will told her. "I saw one of the orchard's security cameras move its position which it would never do without reason, and I also checked out for any SHIELD frequencies in the area. I know you're here."

Simmons looked at the others, unsure of what to say next. "…No, we're not."

"Please put me on speaker." He said so Simmons did. "I know you guys are in the van and if you guys are more comfortable there than by all means you can stay but if you want you can come out and enjoy the crisp fall air, freshly homemade warm apple cider, homemade hot chocolate, apple cider donuts, and oh, chocolate bacon and homemade kettle corn. Oh and next time perhaps use a more inconspicuous van. Got to go. Bye."

He hung up after that, leaving the four in the van with a moment of awkward silence. Their little spying on Will backfired as he knew they were here. If anything, it actually tracked that he found out they were spying on him. Showed that his reputation wasn't all just bluster and he was skilled and observant.

"Well, that didn't work out, did it?" Ward pointed out only for Skye to flip him off. "Well, I don't know about you three, but I need to use the bathroom."

He grabbed his jacket and exited the van, leaving the three behind. "You know…homemade warm apple cider does sound good right now." Fitz said.

"And I've always wanted to try an apple cider donut." Simmons added.

"Yeah, that all did sound good. And I'm a sucker for kettle corn. Let's go." Skye said so they grabbed their jackets and got out of the van. They ended up joining Will and Crystal through the orchard giving the four their first introduction to Will's girlfriend. Crystal Noonan (the last name they made up on the spot) was nice, friendly, and got along with everyone. Skye knew already but the others found out that Crystal knew Will was a SHIELD agent. He told them it helped his relationship where he didn't need to constantly lie about what he was doing or his unusual schedule. Ward, being his usual self, made a stink about Will violating some kind of SHIELD policy and in all honestly, he was probably right. Not in the sense that he couldn't tell her as there were likely other agents who had significant others outside of SHIELD and they were allowed to tell them but the different being they signed NDAs and such. Will told them that Crystal was cleared which was a lie as she couldn't sign an NDA as she didn't exist on earth, but they didn't need to know that.

Still, Crystal got along with everybody and made a great first impression. After walking through the orchard and picking a few more apples so they could bring some back to the BUS, the group sat down in the little rest area/café the farm had for all their freshly made offerings. They managed to get a table so they could sit down after all the walking. They had two large bags filled with apples on the table which Goose was curled around to protect. They had trays of food they got from the café including the freshly made warm apple cider, homemade hot chocolate, several apple cider donuts, the freshly made kettle corn and the chocolate bacon with some new additions of homemade apple pie with homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it.

"Oh my god. This is amazing." Fitz-Simmons said in unison as they ate their apple pie slices with vanilla ice cream with the same fervor as children who got the go ahead for desert.

"I bet all you two need are some cups of tea and you'd be set." Will quipped and that earned some chuckles from Skye, Ward, and Crystal.

"Normally, I'd be offended at the stereotypical if true British stereotype but you're right. Tea would go so well with this, but the warm apple cider is rather nice too." Simmons replied, taking a nice sip which just made things better.

"Yup. Coming up here was always a tradition in my family. My parents first brought me up here when I was still in diapers, and they put me on one of those baby goats and then in the turkey cut out over there for enough photos to fill a booklet." Will pointed to the farm wooden cutouts used for funny family photos. There was the standard one with a farmer family and animals with their faces cut out so you could put your head through and with-it being November they added a Thanksgiving themed one with Turkeys and such. "After that it became a tradition. Every year we'd come here to hang out, enjoy the food, and bring back enough apples to make pies and applesauce."

"That sounds amazing." Skye admitted.

"It was and despite how busy my schedule is it was nice to come up here to do this. Helps that we were close enough for this anyway." Will remarked, taking a sip of apple cider and then a bite of chocolate bacon.

"How can you eat that?" Ward asked before he drank some hot chocolate.

"What? It's good. Salty and sweet. Best combination. Make sure to take the extra back to the BUS. I'm sure Coulson and May would like them. At the very least it'll break up the monotony of what's offered up on the plane." Will pointed out.

"Very true. And on that note, I should probably buy more before we leave." Fitz said, getting up to go buy some more treats he could bring onto the BUS. Simmons followed soon after, wanting to get her own share of food that Fitz wouldn't take and even Ward got up to get some leaving just Will, Crystal, and Skye. And of course, Goose.

"Your team seem like a friendly group." Crystal pointed out.

"They are and thankfully Ward isn't being his usual brooding self." Skye joked and some chuckles were shared. "So, Crystal, I've already spoken with Will and gotten his take on it but how has it been dating a SHIELD agent?"

"Oh boy. Here we go." Will quipped, ready to be put into the crosshairs of this conversation.

"It's had its challenges, not gonna lie." Crystal admitted. "Our conflicting schedules means we can't always be together but when we get the chance, we make it work."

"Crystal's schedule is a little hectic and busy as well so actually the fact that we're both a little busy does help. Both of us have important things we deal with but when we have time together, we jump on the opportunities." Will added. Crystal smiled and leaned into him, placing her head into the crook of his shoulder. "It's not a normal kind of relationship but we've managed to make it over a year and things are looking up."

"What do you do, Crystal? I mean, you know Will's a SHIELD agent so what are you? Homeland security? NSA? FBI? DMV?" Skye quipped, half joking but half serious and wanting to know.

"No, nothing like that. More infrastructure and political consulting work." Crystal answered.

"Wow? What exactly is that?" Skye wondered.

"Consulting and working with various infrastructure groups and their corresponding departments. And I do the same with various political groups so it's a lot of talking, negotiating, and planning." Crystal explained, answering the question so it made sense while also being vague enough like not mentioning any specifics. It was her cover story should anyone ask her what she does. She had been exposed to earth culture long enough to produce a plausible enough cover and it was technically kind of true as she did that work on Attilan with her sister and the rest of the Inhuman royal family. "I've actually just finished some new zoning agreements to implement new farming land so being here to enjoy it after some long talks is quiet nice."

"Really? I figured dealing with farming would make you not want to be anywhere near it for a while." Skye remarked.

"Dealing with the logistic talks, yes but just relaxing here and enjoying some nice food, that is ok." Crystal corrected. "How much longer are you guys in New Jersey?"

"Not sure. We'll be wheels up whenever Coulson says so which means he hasn't picked up another mission. Could be that he's looking into some leads for us to follow so until then we relax while we can. And in the spirit of that, we should head out. We've got reservations at Petrozinis for dinner tonight." Will said to Crystal and she nodded. "Skye, think you and the merry bunch of spies can make it back to the BUS in one piece?"

"We can handle it. Go, have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Skye quipped.

"Ha-ha. Very cute. All right, I'm just gonna pick up a few more things. I'll be right back." Will kissed Crystal on the head and went to buy a few more things from the market in the orchard.

"It's so crazy how different he acts when he's not working." Skye pointed out.

"Not as hyper focused and serious, right?" Crystal guessed.

"Yeah. Don't get me wrong. Will's nothing like Ward. I mean Ward is practically the Terminator. Will, he can be serious when the situation calls for it but he's just much more approachable, you know. Like he has this way of putting you at ease, even when you meet him for the first time, you can just relax and know he's a good guy which his rare. At least that's what I thought when I first met him." Skye recounted.

"I agree. When I first met him, I could tell he was a good person. It was only reinforced when we talked and spent some time together." Crystal agreed.

"How did you two meet? Typical meet-cute situation where you two accidently ran into one another?" Skye wondered.

"Pretty much. Uh, he was doing some work that actually involved my job and department. There was a misunderstanding with security and my group apologized and we smoothed things out. Just talking with him showed me the good heart he has. He's kind, gentle, and caring with a great capacity for compassion but can be dead serious when he needs to be. And he'll go above and beyond to help his friends and family. Do you know about him going to rescue his cousin in Paris?" Crystal asked Skye.

"Yeah, I heard about that. And then he had to deal with pirates after a vacation went bad with his friends. I couldn't believe it. It's like he's a magnet for trouble." Skye pointed out.

"He kind of is. He told me about that incident. Just a regular vacation with his friends in Thailand and one skydiving trip put them on the wrong island. I've talked with some of his friends about what happened, and it wasn't pleasant." Crystal told her. Being kidnapped by a drug-smuggling/human trafficking organization with a small private army was bad enough but add in that nutcase Vaas and his equally crazy sister Citra then it turned into a situation that could drive you mad. Thankfully, Will had already handled his cousin being taken by a sex-trafficking ring in Paris at that point and combined with his SHIELD training and powers he was more than ready to handle the situation. He got his friends out of there, destroyed the organization, killed Vaas and Vaas's boss Hoyt and dealt with Citra and her crazed cult with SHIELD coming in for a rescue. Suffice it to say that Will and his friends went to therapists after their ordeal to help them with the trauma they had endured so they could come to terms with what happened in a healthy way. And it was after that harrowing event that he had proven himself ready to be a SHIELD agent. Not exactly a hallmark memory but definitely a defining one for him. "But even with him being a magnet for trouble, he'll go above and beyond to help his friends, family, and people he cares about. That includes you and the team."

"Happy to be in such special company." Skye remarked. "And you really got lucky. I haven't known Will as long as you have, obviously, but he really is amazing."

"He is and you'll be happy to know he's said that you guys are great as well. He can't say a lot, obviously because of the secrecy of his job, but he's spoken at length about the team he's working with." Crystal said to her.

"Really?" Skye was intrigued.

"Oh, yeah. Coulson he's told me about before. He looks at him like family, like an uncle which gives Will a total of three now. He's mentioned the stoic and by the book Ward, the delightful duo Fitz-Simmons and a charming genius hacker who managed to stump even SHIELD. He's spoken your praise from time to time, so it was nice to finally put a face to the name though he left out cute as a button as well." Crystal complimented, making Skye chuckle as she moved some hair behind her ear and tried to hide the small blush. If Skye didn't know any better, she could have sworn that Crystal was flirting with her. Thankfully, a question popped up in Skye's head that stopped that.

"What about May?"

"The only thing Will said about her is that she has a permanent scowl on her face like someone called agent K, doesn't do casual conversations and that she terrifies him." Crystal recounted the minor details he gave.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Skye agreed while chuckling at the reference to the character from Men in Black. She took a sip of her hot chocolate. "All right, since you're here I've got ask you something."

"What?"

"Do you have any embarrassing pictures of Will?" Skye asked. "I'd love to see something that just chips away at the perfect guy next door façade he has. Not that it's a bad thing but just seeing something that would show he's not so perfect."

"I got just the thing." Crystal took out her phone and began to skim through her photos to find it. "This is a golden moment that I'm definitely not forgetting, and Will wishes he could."

"What happened?" Skye wondered, now very interested to see the photo in question and the story behind it.

"Ok, so we went on a date in New York, in Central Park just relaxing and enjoying some time together. We went to Dave and Busters after, just for a night of food and playing some games. We got a little competitive and decided that the person at the end of the night who lost the most games had to do something the winner wanted. I managed to pull a win at the last second thanks to a claw machine game." Crystal recounted, leaving out the detail on them promising not to use theirs powers to cheat so it was just a test of skill and luck. And he still lost.

"Oh, I like where this is going. So, what did you have him do?" Skye wondered.

"Something out of character for him but enjoyable for me. Easter was coming up, so I told him we were going to the service and to help out at the little Easter egg hunt after, for the kids and such. But he wasn't going to be wearing regular clothes." Crystal hinted.

"Oh god, please tell me you did what I think you did." Skye pleaded.

"I believe so." Crystal turned her phone towards Skye to show her a photo. It was in a large green field with trees around and a church in the background, so it was likely the Church's backyard. It was decorated for the Easter holiday and there were kids in their Sunday best with their parents for the Easter egg hunt. There were several kids standing together smiling for a photo with Goose in the middle of them, wearing a cut bowtie around his neck and a miniature top hat that was tilted to the side a bit. Right behind him in the middle of the all the kids was Crystal wearing a lovely spring dress but next to her was Will in a giant Easter bunny suit. Crystal even went so far to do makeup on his face, so he has whiskers and a white furry nose. Skye had to cover her mouth as she couldn't hold back her laughter. Will looked so unhappy in the situation while Crystal had the biggest smile on her face and the kids around them looked happy.

"Oh my god. That is just too adorable for the kids and embarrassing for Will. You have to send me that." Skye told Crystal.

"Whoa, hey!" They heard and saw Will rush over. "We promised that photo would never see the light of day."

"Oh, relax, Will. There's nothing wrong with it. I think it's rather adorable…doc." Skye quipped, sounding a bit like Bugs Bunny at the end which made Crystal chuckle.

"Ha-Ha. Ok, that's enough of that. Crystal, we'll have a talk about keeping things private and out of prying eyes in the future, but we should head out." He said so she gathered her things.

"Have fun you two. It was nice meeting you, Crystal." Skye walked over and gave her a hug.

"You too, Skye. We should do this again." Crystal told her.

"Absolutely. Obviously, our schedule is as crazy as Will's, but we'll work it out." Skye promised and Crystal smiled.

"Can't wait." Crystal replied as Will looked over at Goose.

"How about you, Goose? Want me to drop you off at home or you want to head to the BUS with Skye and the others?" He wondered and Goose just curled up on the table, not indicating she wanted to get up. "All right, that answers that. Skye, think you and the merry bunch can watch her?"

"Sure. Goose and I get along great." Skye scratched the cat on the head.

"All right. Goose, take care of Skye and remember don't use Ward's bed as a litter box." Will reminded her before he and Crystal left. When they were out of earshot, Skye leaned in and pet Goose on the head.

"You don't have to listen to him. It's funny." Skye said to her. Fitz-Simmons and Ward returned with more food, and they returned to the BUS.

Will drove him and Crystal back to Atlantic City in his Aston Martin with the backseat occupied by their bushel of apples and other food they bought. "So, your team seem really nice. Fitz-Simmons seem to be on the same brain wavelength at times."

"That's true. Even before they joined the team, I heard the two were practically inseparable. Of course, only one has feelings for the other and the other is oblivious to it." Will pointed out.

"I saw that too. It's cute, like puppy love. You think Fitz will make a move on Simmons?" Crystal wondered.

"If push comes to shove, I think so. His confidence is growing slowly so I think he'll get to it eventually. It'll probably just take the right moment for him to act on his feelings for Simmons. And I have a feeling she feels the same way too." Will replied.

"Would that feeling be your telepathy and you reading her mind?" Crystal joked.

"You know I don't like to use my powers like that. Just because I'm a telepath doesn't mean I read minds constantly. Besides, what most people think about on a daily basis is stuff I don't need to know. I've learned that the hard way." He remarked, remembering how it was when he first got his powers. Like his telekinesis, his telepathy took time to control only instead of him inadvertently moving objects with his mind or crushing an object by accident he could hear the inner thoughts of people nearby when he didn't want to. And a lot of the time he didn't want to as what people thought in their heads was both annoying and aggravating. It was either the most mundane things you could think of like the chores you needed to get done, what were you planning to wear to work, and complaining about work/life or the most messed up not safe for work/public kind of thoughts. He definitely eavesdropped on his fair share of teenagers going through puberty, stay at home suburban moms buying drugs, and more than his fair share of cheating spouses. He even overheard the thoughts of a husband and wife both cheating on the other with the same person. Suffice it to say that once he finally got control over his telepathy, he was beyond grateful to not have to hear what everyone thought all the time and kind of made it his own rule to only use his telepathy for work-related situations.

"So then does your feelings and keen sense of insight also understand that Skye was giving you gaga eyes the entire time?" Crystal asked him and he nodded. "Good. Didn't want to think you lost your edge."

"Ha-ha." Will mocked. "I haven't lost my edge. Skye admitted as much to me when she asked about you. She admitted she found me attractive, but I told her that I was happily dating you."

Crystal couldn't help the smile that adorned her face as she reached over and kissed Will on the cheek. "You're so cute and that deserves something you'll definitely be getting tonight after dinner." Crystal whispered into his ear before playfully biting his earlobe causing him to involuntarily jerk the steering wheel.

"Easy, Crystal."

"You're cute." Crystal kissed him on the cheek and sat back down. "And so, is she. Don't you think so?"

"Oh, no. I know a trap when I see one. I'm keeping my mouth shut on the subject." Will swore.

"Relax, Will. It's not a trap. I think Skye's beautiful and so is Darcy. You are clearly drawn to or attract very beautiful women." Crystal stated. "It's just your amazing and caring personality. Guess I'm lucky that I got you before Skye could or Darcy could reclaim you."

"Like I said before about Darcy, nothing happened. I had no idea she'd be in London when I arrived to investigate what was going on." Will swore.

"Relax, Will. I'm not mad. From how you described her she sounds like someone I'd like to meet." Crystal said causing Will to look at her funny.

"Uh huh…" He wasn't sure how to react to his current girlfriend wanting to meet his ex, even if they did part on amicable terms. "Sorry, it's just…usually you don't hear your girlfriend wanting to me your ex-girlfriend."

"Well thinks worked differently on Attilan. We have a more open view on relationships than here on Earth. I've had various encounters with a few of my ex-partners or they've had various interactions with one another. My sister remarked on her adventurous times when she was young before, she settled down with Blackbolt." Crystal remarked and Will definitely wasn't expecting to hear that.

"Guess things on Attilan are as Inhuman as the population." He quipped.

"They are. At the very least we don't have the stigma with sex of either gender that earth seems to have. We enjoy it and don't discriminate." Crystal told him with the not-so subtle undertone in her voice expressing what she was inferring.

"I…I…I have no response for that." Will muttered causing Crystal to laugh. Suffice to say that Crystal enjoyed embarrassing Will though she wasn't entirely joking. Or was she?

The next day…

[Serious orchestra music mixed with guitar and drums in a rock-style]

"Our worlds about to break…tormented and attacked."

"Lost from when we wake…there's no way to get back."

"I'm standing on my own…but not I'm not alone."

"AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"

Will opened his eyes when he heard his ring tone go off. It was a song called Fight As One by Bad City. They wrote it to sort of commemorate the Battle of New York and the assembling of the Avengers. The song kicked ass and was catchy, so much so that Tony had his lawyers approach the band to license the song for the Avengers. Suffice it to say they jumped on the opportunity, and it helped with the Avengers PR and recognition. Everyone loves a catchy song.

Will reached his hand behind his back and grabbed his phone off his nightstand to see it was Coulson called him, so he answered and put it to his ear. "Yeah…" He mumbled.

"Sorry to wake you, Will but a lead's come up on Centipede." Coulson told him.

"All right. I'll be there." Will hung up and groaned in annoyance before turning over and laying flat on his back. He heard a murmur and mumble before a pair of arms wrapped around his chest and a body snuggled into him. Will leaned down and brushed some hair out of Crystal's face before kissing her on the head. After dinner, they returned to his house in Atlantic City. There she regaled him with some talks about her past in Attilan including some of her past flings and relationships. Suffice to say they were very enlightening, and Crystal did not discriminate, man or woman and when she joked about the possibility of her meeting with Skye again or even Darcy and what could potentially happen let's just say that's when things took a turn. For the better, of course.

"What's wrong?" Crystal mumbled.

"Team's back up. Got a case." Will groaned before kissing her on the head and sitting up. He let out a loud yawn and turned to the side, putting his feet to the floor and cracking his neck and back. "Ugh, would have preferred another day off."

He felt the bed move and Crystal wrapped her arms around Will from behind. "It's ok. Anytime we can spend together is worth it."

"I know." Will held her arm before turning his head and giving her a quick kiss. "You up for a quick shower before I leave?"

"Sounds like fun." Crystal got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom wearing nothing, giving him a clear view of her long, shapely, beautiful legs and wonder derriere. "Are you coming?"

"Definitely." He got up and followed her to the bathroom. After they had their fun, Crystal called Lockjaw and he took her back to Attilan while Will packed his car with his gear, reactivated his home security system, packed up Goose with him and drove to meet up with Coulson and the others.

Three hours later…

The BUS, Private New Jersey Airfield

Coulson walked through the BUS to gather up his team for their next mission. Will was nearly back but Skye, Fitz-Simmons, and Ward had returned to the BUS yesterday after their little spying mission. Coulson walked over to Skye's bunk and saw her busy at work going over SHIELD files.

[Knock-Knock]

Coulson's knock on her bunk door got her attention. "Mission briefing in ten minutes." He told her and she nodded when he noticed the personnel file she was reading. "Katherine Shane?"

"You know her?"

"We ran a few ops together in the '90s. Smart. Resourceful. Had a soft spot for Truffaut movies." Coulson remembered.

"Easy there, charm school. According to these files, Agent Shane could be my mom." Skye said with hope, but Coulson was dubious at best.

"Even if Shane was the agent who dropped you off at the orphanage, it doesn't mean she's your mother." Coulson pointed out.

"I started looking into all the female agents active when I was born. Needle in a haystack, I know but then I factored in age and marital status, and then I built a program to narrow down that field." Skye explained and she sounded hopeful, but Coulson wasn't.

"You're still looking at a long road."

"Well, it would be a lot shorter if I could access more files. Maybe you could remove my Internet Nanny? I'm talking about my tracking bracelet." Skye held it up.

"I got that."

"So, you'll take it off?"

"No." Coulson answered. "But I asked Will to look into SHIELD's more restricted files. He'll let you know if he finds anything."

"Thanks, Coulson. I'll be at the meeting." Skye told him and Coulson left, feeling a little guilty that he just lied to her. He now had to tell Will to keep up the lie.

Speaking of Will, he drove his Aston Martin through the private airfield over to the BUS where he saw Ward and May practicing in the hangar. She kicked his ass, as usual, but he noticed the two were getting very friendly and familiar, which for May actually meant something. The two heard Will's car pull up, so they separated, seeing him park his car in the hangar before grabbing his gear. Goose got out of the car and strolled past them with Will doing the same. "Towel down and get changed. Coulson called in for a meeting." Will told them and they nodded, heading to get cleaned up.

The team gathered in the main briefing area where Coulson brought up prison security footage related to their next mission. "At 0800 hours, three men infiltrated the Havenworth's Federal Penitentiary."

"Infiltrated? More like cannon-balled." Skye corrected him.

"They were in and out in less than two minutes. Left no prints at the scene but we do have one lead." Coulson zoomed in on the arm of one of the attackers to highlight a metal band on his arm with an orange liquid contained inside.

"Centipede." Ward said.

"It seems they salvaged some of their research from Hong Kong." Coulson brought up the data.

"So, we were right. Chan's platelets solved their combustion problem. Now they can create super-soldiers with no fear of explosions." Simmons said in amazement.

"Maybe don't get so excited about it." Fitz pointed out and she nodded.

"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 told them.

"Their target?" Will asked and Coulson brought up the prison file on a crazy looking guy who would look right at home with Hannibal Lecter.

"Edison Po. Former Marine. Experts in tactics and rapid response. He fell off the grid in '08, reappeared 18 months ago at a diner in Boston." Coulson answered.

"Where he stabbed a friend's eyes out." Ward read.

"With a steak knife. Then finished his meal." Coulson finished.

"That's funny. Po doesn't look crazy." Skye said only for everyone to look at her. "I'm kidding. The guy is a walking mug shot."

"Which means he shouldn't be too hard to track down. Finding Po and these Centipede soldiers is a top priority for SHIELD. We'll be running point, but we won't be working alone." Coulson told them.

"Who'd they send for backup?" Will wondered.

"Someone who can help us fight fire with fire." Coulson answered.

"Somebody we worked with before?" Skye asked.

"Not exactly." Coulson replied.

Line Break xxxxx

Washington DC

The BUS made a trip to DC to pick up their backup who ended up being Mike Peterson, the Centipede test subject who was the first task Coulson and his team handled. After some calming down and necessary psychiatric help, Mike Peterson joined SHIELD as a field trainee. With the Centipede device and serum, he was another super soldier for SHIELD and was making progress but suffice it to say that not everyone was thrilled with the idea.

Will stood with Coulson in the BUS's hangar as they saw the SHIELD SUV pull up with Mike Peterson. "Are you sure about this Coulson because this idea seems a little rash and with a possibility of going wrong." Will told him.

"Didn't peg you of all people as a cynic." Coulson remarked.

"A pragmatic realist, thank you very much." Will corrected him. "Look, I sympathize with Mike Peterson, I do and believe me I get and support the idea of second chances. I'm the poster child for a second chance. If you or Fury saw me as a threat, I'd be warming a cell in the Cube instead of where I am now but I'm not so sure about this."

"What's your concern?" Coulson wondered.

"Other then that possibly mental instability and ego-trip he went through, he has the old version of Centipede's formula which was combustible so putting him into combat could turn him into a bomb." Will pointed out. "Also, that thing may make him a super soldier, but it'll be one against three. The way those three men moved in the prison showed clear military training so mixed with whatever Centipede is doing then it makes them dangerous. At best, Peterson has a few months of SHIELD training. That alone is not enough."

"I know which is why he's backup. You take the lead in the field, Will. Those Centipede soldiers may be strong and fast but you're stronger than all three of them. Mr. Peterson will be there in case you need assistance." Coulson told him.

"I'm good Coulson but handling three Centipede soldiers on my own may stretch how much a simple human could do. You know what you're asking me, right?" Will asked him for clarification.

"Only if the situation calls for it. I know how you are about your identity and powers being kept a secret but if this is our chance to stop Centipede and to protect the team then it may be necessary." Coulson told him. Will understood that eventually he may need to come clean to the team about his powers and the fact that he's Aegis. Not everything but just the broad strokes. He's technically the only member of the Avengers with a secret identity and he'd prefer to keep it that way. Fury locked it under level-10 clearance only he could access and while some others in SHIELD knew he was Aegis they either were approved to know by Fury like Hill and Coulson or in terms of Bobbi Morse, she was sworn to secrecy by Fury himself. And it helped that she was trained under Barton, practically family to him and that he and Will trusted her. "Not to tack on more but you should know that Skye's trying to ID the agent that dropped her off at the orphanage. We agreed to protect her from the truth, so I told her you were looking into it."

"I already was as a favor to her and let me remind you, you said to protect her from the truth, but we don't even know what we're protecting her from Coulson. Just bodies and a giant mystery but one thing at a time." Will remarked as Mike Peterson walked onto the plane.

"Agent Coulson, good to see you again. And you must be Agent Detmer." Mike introduced himself but Will kept a stoic demeanor.

"Forgive him. He wasn't exactly thrilled at my decision to bring you along." Coulson told Mike.

"Yeah, I understand. Look, the first time around I wasn't who I wanted to be but now I get it. Having all this is a privilege. And training to be an agent, working with SHIELD it's me trying to do better. Trying to be better. I just need you to give me a shot." Mike Peterson told him.

"Everyone deserves a second chance. But let me be clear. There will not be a third." Coulson warned him and Mike understood that. Will, Coulson, and Mike Peterson made their way through the BUS to the main briefing area where they overheard Ward going off on how this was all a bad idea but then stopped when he saw the looks Skye, Fitz, and Simmons were giving him.

"He's standing right behind me, isn't he?" Ward asked and they nodded.

"Mr. Peterson, this is Agent Grant Ward. He's the man who shot you at Union Station. Fitz-Simmons designed the weapon he used, and I think you remember—"

"Kidnap victim." Skye raised her hand.

"You joined SHIELD?" Mike Peterson asked her.

"Yeah. Turns out, guys in suits, not so bad." Skye answered.

"Look, I know Union Station could've gone another way. Another team might not have let me out of there alive. I owe you. All of you." Mike Peterson told them.

"That's bygones. And water under a distant bridge. Far away." Skye assured him. "How's your son?"

"Still with my sister. He thinks I'm working construction, but he's good. Happy." Mike answered.

"All right, clock's ticking on this case. Skye, did you get anything?" Will asked.

"Not much on Po. I checked his previously known addresses and old military contacts, came up empty." Skye replied.

"We've been looking for where Po might be on the outside but let's look at his life on the inside. At the prison. See if that gets us any leads. Anything on the Centipede soldiers?" Coulson questioned.

"We found a facial recognition match on one of them." Simmons answered and Ward brought up the data.

"Name's Brian Hayward. Station in Afghanistan for three years, then fell off the radar when he got back."

"Only living relative, his sister, Laura. A sophomore at the University of Ohio." Skye added.

"She's our best shot at finding Hayward. You and I will go talk to her." Coulson said to Ward who nodded in response. "Have May set a course for Cleveland."

An hour later…

Cleveland, Ohio

When the BUS landed in Ohio, Coulson and Ward went to the University to track down Hayward's sister. Mike Peterson was in the lab with Fitz-Simmons where they gave him a physical exam and were working on a suit for him to use in the field. Skye was working on digging up a lead they could use on Centipede so when she found one, she went to find Will and found him in the living room, using a tool kit to do some maintenance on his HK pistol.

"Hey. Coulson told you were helping to, you know, find my long-lost folks. So, thanks. I'm glad you're in on this with me. That means a lot." Skye told him.

"Don't mention it." Will replied, using a cleaning rod on the barrel of his pistol before Goose nudged over a small container of gun oil.

"So, I uh, did most of the heavy lifting. Came up with shortlist. Here." Skye put a flash drive down. "Maybe that'll help."

"Goose, would you mind?" Will asked and Goose picked up the flash drive in her mouth before taking it to Will's bunk. "I'll take a look at it later. We're on mission now we focus on that."

"Ok." Skye agreed and reached over to touch a pistol magazine filled with bullets.

"Ah! Don't touch." Will stopped her dead in her tracks before she could touch them and placed those pistol magazines into a case.

"Geez, overprotective much. You know, Ward's teaching me to handle a gun, right?" Skye reminded him as Will finished with his cleaning and began putting his pistol back together.

"Not with those kinds of bullets though. Exploding compression bullets. Shoots like a regular subsonic bullet but explodes with the yield of a small hand grenade. Useful for getting out of bad situations or taking out an armored vehicle." Will pointed out as he finished putting his pistol back together and loaded it with a fresh magazine of .45 ACP bullets and holstering it on his thigh.

"And you think you'll need hand grenade bullets?" Skye wondered.

"Considering what these guys can do then yes. Super soldier or not they can't do much if they're missing a limb." Will remarked. "Some advice I got when I first started, Skye. Always make sure to use very advantage you can get in any situation. You'll never know when you need it."

"Already ahead of you. I was digging into Po, and I think I got a lead." Skye said so she brought Will over to the main computer and brought up security camera footage of Po speaking with a woman in the visiting area. "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 SHIELD. This could be the same girl."

"Can we hear the conversation?" Will asked.

"That's the bummer. There was no audio but it's not a total loss. I was able to use SHIELD's lip-reading program, because we have one of those. Amazing. It didn't work on the girl because she never looked at the camera, but Po did. Once. And it caught this." Skye played the footage, and the program extrapolated his sentence.

"The Clairvoyant doesn't like to be touched."

"I wrote that down, so we don't have to hear that again ever." Skye told him.

"The Clairvoyant…" Will muttered.

"Yeah, does that mean anything to you?" Skye asked.

"No. Name does ring a bell. Must be someone new, someone behind all of this. Pulling the strings behind the scenes of Centipede, he has Po and Raina working for him." Will said.

"How'd you know her name is Raina?" Mike Peterson asked as he walked in after his session with Fitz-Simmons.

"Interrogated a suspect in China. How do you know her?" Will wondered.

"She recruited me for Centipede. Came up to me at the hospital where I did my back therapy. Out of the blue. Told me she could change my life." Mike Peterson recalled.

"Just like she did Chan Ho Yin." Will said as Skye looked at him. "Same woman in a flower dress recruited him. Used him to get his platelets for the serum. Skye, when was this?"

"Soon after what happened in China." Skye answered and Will thought it over. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm getting a better understanding of what's going on with Centipede. Raina is clearly a crucial part of their recruitment process but so is Po. Why would she go to see him?" Will said aloud, trying to figure out how this all fit. He had the pieces of the puzzle, and it was nearly put together but still missing some pieces. "Skye, hack into every single server and camera you can and see if you're facial recognition can get anything on Raina. If we see where she's been then we might be able to get an understanding on who else she's been in touch with for Centipede. And do the same thing for Eddison Po. He may have dropped off the grid until he went to prison, but he had to go somewhere, and it had to involve Centipede and the Clairvoyant. EDI can help you if you need it."

"Got it. What do you think we'll find?" Skye wondered.

"Not sure but breaking Po out of prison had to be for a reason. He's been in jail for 18 months and Centipede has been going on covertly behind the scenes all that time. So much so that even SHIELD didn't know about it." Will pointed out.

"Until I got hacked their system." Skye remembered.

"Until that explosion in the Centipede office and I crashed down onto the street." Mike Peterson remembered that day.

"It force them into the light, but they were able to keep quiet until China and Chan Ho Yin. After that, it's breaking Po out of jail. They're escalating. They have something big planned and we're not gonna like it. Skye, get started. I'll contact Coulson." Will told her and she nodded, setting up the program while he called Coulson's phone. "Coulson, you there?"

"I'm here. We're on campus. Hayward's sister is in class and Ward is set to intercept. What did you find?"

"Skye, send it." Will told her so Skye sent what they had just learned to Coulson's datapad.

"We're running her through our systems. Maybe we can get an ID but we're guessing she's Centipede's recruiter." Skye told him.

"She visited him shortly after what happened in China. We have to assume that Po's been working for Centipede since he went to prison." Will told him.

"Three super-soldiers dive-bomb a prison, pluck him out. Perfect timing and everything but they got him out for a reason, especially now. They're planning something. With three Centipede soldiers we have to assume they have the manpower and tech to make more. Could be they want to use Po to coordinate and lead them in the field."

"Fits with his background but it could have to do with who he's working for." Will suggested.

"So, these guys have super-soldiers, an expert military strategist, and a Clairvoyant who can see the future. Anyone else thinking about switching teams?" Skye quipped.

"Will, you ever come across that name before?" Coulson asked him.

"No, never. Could be we're dealing with someone new, and the name is just for show but considering the fact that Centipede was able to stay off SHIELD's radar for so long than I'm willing to proceed on the side of caution here." Will stated.

"Agreed. Run the name through our databases and see if anything pops up. Will, run through your contacts as well. Maybe we'll get something." Coulson told him, referring to Will's regular contacts like with his Oliver Queen alias but also superpowered ones meaning the other Avengers or Professor Xavier. He was a telepath as well so if there was a criminal mastermind psychic out there then he may know something. "Ward's about to make contact with Hayward's sister."

Ward played his part perfectly and going to Hayward's sister was the right play. She called her brother shortly after her conversation with Ward and they were able to track the signal to Oakland, California.

One short plane ride later…

Oakland, California

The BUS landed at a nearby airfield to where the signal from Hayward's phone came from. An abandoned warehouse, naturally. Coulson would go in with Ward, May, Will, and Mike Peterson. Ward, May, and Will were wearing their SHIELD tactical gear and Coulson dropped off the combat suit Fitz-Simmons made for Mike Peterson. He arrived in the hangar where the team was gathered.

"I think it's quite smart." Simmons said.

"How does it feel?" Fitz asked Mike Peterson.

"It feels good. Comfortable." He replied as he stretched around it in. He was wearing a dark blue tactical field uniform. Consisting of a long-sleeve top half and pants, it was lightweight, breathable, durable, and allowed for ease of movement. Perfect for fighting in the field.

"Having powers is cheating…but the suit's pretty good." Ward admitted.

"It's perfect for an array of tactical missions." Fitz said in pride.

"Yeah, also measures your heart rate, systolic pressures, and glucose levels." Simmons added.

"All while providing state-of-the-art ballistic protection." Fitz finished.

"Thanks." Mike Peterson told him.

"Oh, no thank you. /We've never been so proud." Fitz-Simmons replied.

Coulson walked into the hangar with a data tablet they were using to track their target. "Hayward's cell phone has been traced to an abandoned factory about eight miles from here." Coulson showed everyone.

"Cliché but standard." Will remarked. "Probably where Centipede set up their new lab."

"It's certainly been their MO. We destroyed one factory, they set up another, putting us back to square one. This time I want answers." Coulson stated.

"This mean we go in quiet. Do minimal damage to the facility and the people inside." May added.

"Guess that means no exploding bullets." Skye whispered to Will who just shrugged.

"Ward, May you'll go in through the west entrance. Mr. Peterson and I will enter through the loading dock. Will, aerial entry through the rooftop here." Coulson showed everyone their entry points. "Fitz-Simmons and Skye will run the backend from outside."

"Coulson are you sure we should do this just us? We've been playing Whac-A-Mole with these guys since Ward first picked me up from my van. Should big SHIELD have sent in more backup or an additional support team?" Skye asked.

"We've already got the backup." Coulson looked at Mike Peterson. "And as for support?"

Will placed a duffel bag down and opened it to reveal a grenade launcher. "The explosive kind when shit hits the fan. Appropriate words to live by." He zipped it back up. "Let's do this."

Everyone nodded and headed out.

Line Break xxxxx

Coulson and Mike Peterson entered the warehouse through the loading dock, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary while Ward and May made their entrance on the other side of the building. Will got onto the roof and opened up the skylight before attaching a rope and slowly rappelled down with a bag on his back holding his grenade launcher. He hung in the air for a bit and took a look around, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. It just looked like an abandoned warehouse. "Coulson, I'm not seeing anything."

"Are we alone here?" Coulson radioed the support team.

"It appears so. The only heat signatures we're reading are yours." Simmons reported from their scans.

"But there's a weird electronic signal. I'm trying to isolate it." Skye added.

Ward and May looked around their area and saw the same as Coulson and Will. "Place looks emptied out. Are we too late?"

Will rappelled to the ground and undid his hook to the rope before looking around. He rendezvoused with Coulson and decided to use his telekinetic sense to see if there was anyone around and there was. He signaled to Coulson, pointing at a cargo container before taking out his phone and dialing Hayward's number. They waited for a bit and then heard a ringtone go off from inside said container before the doors were blown clear off by Hayward.

"Uh, sir, you've got company!" Fitz told him.

"Yeah, we do." Coulson replied as Hayward grabbed the edge of the container and pushed it towards Coulson and Mike Peterson, but the latter rushed forward and stopped it. Will pulled out his pistol but Hayward ripped off a chunk of gravel and a metal rod from a support beam and hurled them at him. Will dove for cover, having to keep his cover that he was just a regular SHIELD agent.

"Coming your way!" Ward radioed but then another Centipede soldier appeared so he and May had to contend with him.

Hayward came around the side of the cargo container and rushed forward but Coulson shot him with the Night-Night pistol, and it knocked him on his ass. Coulson and Mike Peterson took some tentative steps forward thinking it was safe but the blue veins on Hayward's face filled with the tetrodotoxin receded and he opened his eyes before getting back to his feet.

"Usually packs a bigger punch." Coulson remarked.

"Yeah, I remember." Mike Peterson charged and wrestled with Hayward to keep him away from Coulson. He managed to push him back and throw him into a cargo container. The other Centipede soldier had knocked out Ward and May put up a decent fight, but he knocked her down as well. Coulson raised the Night-Night gun at him when the third soldier knocked the gun out of his hand and pushed him away. Coulson hit the ground but before the Centipede soldier could get close Will jumped of the top of the cargo container and knocked him back with a flying knee strike to the chest. It staggered him back a few steps before he threw out a punch, but Will ducked and slipped around him, quickly wrapping a small rope around his waist. The Centipede soldier tried to grab him, but Will rolled forward, sliding his grenade launcher pack to Coulson and firing a grappling hook to a nearby support beam then attaching said hook to the rope he hooked around the Centipede soldier. The rope around the soldier's waist tightened and the grappling hook yanked him off his feet, pulling him into the support beam.

Mike Peterson continued fighting with his Centipede soldier while the one who took down May and Ward turned his sights on Will, seeing him as a threat. He charged, preventing Will was drawing his pistol and tried to punch his head off but Will did a backfall to dodge and kicked him back before doing a kip-up to his feet and hitting him with a flying Superman punch to the face, putting a little more strength into it so it hurt. The soldier tried to grab him, but Will sidestepped and grabbed his arm before rolling over his back and taking him to the ground with an arm throw and tossing a flashbang pellet into his face.

Mike Peterson fought valiantly against Hayward but wasn't skilled enough and got stabbed in the side with a piece of rebar. Hayward shoved him back and Mike Peterson fell to his knees, holding his side in pain. "Down!" Will shouted and Mike dropped his head allowing Will to roll over his back and kick Hayward in the face. He then dropkicked him in the chest to knock him back and rolled to the side. "Coulson!"

"Cover your heads!" Coulson raised the grenade launcher and fired a round at Hayward. Will and Mike covered their heads as the explosion sent Hayward flying back. The other two Centipedes saw what happened and ran for the exit. Will did a kip-up back to his feet, firing a few shots from his pistol and Coulson fired a round from the grenade launcher but they missed. The two Centipede soldiers were fast and exited the warehouse before they could get hurt. The two then walked over to Hayward's mangled body. Hayward had a burning hole in his chest, his left side had a massive gash that was bleeding out, part of his left shoulder had been blown off and a piece of left cheek was gone but miraculously he was still alive. "Who's behind Centipede? Who's doing this?!"

Will quickly read his mind as Hayward managed to speak. "I won't say anything. I promise. No. Please! Don't do—"

Hayward stopped speaking when they heard a small ping, and his left eye blew out. "Did you get anything?" Coulson whispered to Will.

"Yeah, but nothing useful." Will whispered back before he walked over and helped Mike Peterson to his feet. "You all right?"

"Yeah. Thank you." Mike told him.

"Don't mention it." Will supported his side as Coulson helped May and Ward. Centipede was down one super soldier, but the team still had some more questions than answers.

The BUS

The team returned to the BUS after Fitz-Simmons did a quick analysis of Hayward's body before a SHIELD team was called in to secure it. Will and Coulson recognized what happened to his eye and the analysis shown on the screens it the medical lab all but confirmed it.

"The one on the left is Akela Amador's. Hayward's is on the right. Now, his prosthetic was slightly damaged, but based on digital reconstruction, we can now confirm that the technology is virtually identical. Hayward's prosthetic has the same internal power source, backscatter capabilities and biomechanics as Amador." Fitz explained, bringing up the data to support his findings.

"So, Centipede also designed the eye implant?" Coulson said in disbelief.

"Which means they were behind the diamond heist for the alien writing." Will added.

"Who's Akela Amador?" Mike Peterson asked as Simmons tended to his injury.

"A former SHIELD agent. The first person we encountered with this eye technology. A good agent who was forced to do some bad things." Coulson recounted.

"We helped her." Simmons added.

"Kind of a pattern with you guys." Mike groaned in pain as Simmons adjusted the bandages on his side. "So, then those soldiers at the warehouse were forced to attack us? Through that eye thing?"

"They were getting orders. When the tide turned in our favor, Centipede flipped Hayward's kill switch, told the other guys to run. Can you track the eye feed like before, find their location?" Coulson asked Skye.

"Nope. They've upgraded since Amador. Their feed's untraceable now." She answered.

"They're clearly learning from their mistakes and their tech is advancing. To pull this off they'd need access to state-of-the-art technology and a lot of resources. This group is a lot larger than we've thought." Will surmised.

"Po's the strategist, Raina's their recruiter. Perhaps this Clairvoyant's the money?" Simmons suggested.

"That makes sense. If I could see the future I'd go straight to Las Vegas." Fitz remarked making Simmons roll her eyes.

"Psychic or not they don't seem to exist, and no one has heard of them. And coming from a previously unknown government organization that's saying something. I hate to say it Coulson, but this seems something that this team can't handle alone. That warehouse was a trap. They knew we were coming which means this Clairvoyant really is psychic or they have help from inside SHIELD." Will told him.

"You mean like with Quantum?" Skye wondered and Will nodded.

"If that event showed us anything it's that SHIELD isn't as infallible as we hoped. No one knew we were gonna be at the warehouse except for SHIELD because we had to report it. Hayward's sister couldn't have told them so that leaves us with two options. This Clairvoyant really is a psychic which means catching him is gonna be next to impossible as he'll be one step ahead of us. Or the Clairvoyant could have an agent inside SHIELD keeping him appraised of what we're doing." He said.

"You're right but if the Clairvoyant really is psychic, he should have foreseen what happened at the warehouse and prepared so either he's not psychic or if he is then he's not perfect. Either way, we can't let him know that we're onto him. I need to update HQ if only to keep up appearances but you're right in that this is bigger than we thought, and we'll need help. People we can trust." Coulson stated. "Will, think you can handle that?"

"I'll get on it." Will answered.

"Meet me in my office in ten minutes. Debrief." Coulson told him before he left.

"Good work, Mike. You did good." Will told him and got a nod in response. "Let me know if something comes up."

Will headed up his bunk and grabbed a special encrypted laptop from his bag. He opened it, scanned his thumbprint into a scanner and put in an access code before activating the message system. He opened up an encrypted chat with a username $T. He typed in if Professor X had found anything yet and waited a few seconds for a response. The small three little blinking dots blipped as someone typed on the other end.

[He checked with Cerebro. Scanned the whole planet. No new mutant psychics going by the Clairvoyant or involved in what you're up to. No current psychics either and that's a short list.]

He sighed in annoyance. A part of him was hoping that Professor Xavier would be able to find this guy which would allow Will and the others to take him down faster. While telepathy isn't 100% omnipotent it tends to help solve most situations much faster and with Cerebro, Professor Xavier should have been able to find this guy, at least a trace of him. The fact that he didn't mean that the Clairvoyant wasn't a mutant and likely wasn't a psychic so it was just someone using a codename to trick people which would make him harder to track down but not impossible, so he typed a response.

[Tell the Professor thanks. If anything comes up let me know and remind everyone that if they need anything than just let me know. Happy to pay back for the favor.]

Will closed his laptop and put it away before exiting his bunk and heading to Coulson's office for their debrief. On the way he passed Ward and May having a poignant conversation, but he ignored them and continued on. At least, that's what he thought would happen.

"Hey, Will. Drink?" Ward offered.

"No thanks. Coulson needs me." Will replied, walking past him.

"Good work today." Ward told him.

"Thanks. How are you and May feeling?" Will wondered.

"Fine. A few cuts and bruises but nothing new. I see you're fine." Ward pointed out. "How'd that happen?"

"I played it smart. Part of my training is approaching situations from various tactical advantages and one of them is how to approach combat against a superior enemy. Turns out that kind of training saves you a beating. Might want to keep that in mind the next time you have a fight." Will urged, imparting a valuable piece of advice.

"Yeah, but something tells me that pure tactical awareness and thinking wouldn't be enough unless you knew what was gonna happen." Ward said with a not-so subtle undertone in his voice.

"You trying to make a point, Ward?" Will wondered.

"Depends on if there's a point to be made. Everyone who went into that warehouse got hurt, even Coulson, but you don't have so much as a scratch. Why is that?" Ward asked aloud so Will walked up to him.

"I'd be very careful with what you're insinuating, Agent Ward." Will warned him.

"I'm just asking a valid question. Why did you not get a scratch when we went up against Centipede?" Ward wondered.

"You want to know the answer to that?" Will threw out a punch that Ward blocked, and he countered with his own. Will grabbed his arm, twisted his wrist and slammed Ward into the bar face first, putting both arms behind his back in a tight grip that he couldn't get out of. May just watched as Ward groaned in pain, trying to get free but he couldn't. He then pulled him off the bar and spun him around so he fell into a chair. "It's quite simple. I'm just better than you. Think I made my point so unless you have any other things you'd like to say, I'm gonna do us both a favor and forget this ever happened."

Will walked away after that as Ward rubbed his wrist and arm in pain. May just gave Ward a look with her usual stoic gaze. "Feel better trying to make a point?" May wondered.

"Come on, May. You know there's something up with Will. The youngest SHIELD agent to be made Level-8, his access to certain restricted files, all the missions he's undertaken, the close relationship he has with Coulson and supposedly Hill and Fury. Something is up with him." Ward told her.

"And you thought that accusing him now was the right time to do it?" May pointed out the flawed logic in that. "Look, I'm not oblivious to Will or the inconsistencies with him and his record but Coulson trusts him like family and that's good enough for me."

Will knocked on the wall to Coulson's office and was motioned to come in. He closed the door behind him, and Coulson pressed a few buttons to sound proof the room so no one could eavesdrop on them. "Everything ok?" Coulson asked.

"Fine. Heard back from my contact. Professor Xavier hasn't come across anyone called the Clairvoyant and no new psychics have appeared, mutant or otherwise." Will told him.

"Your assessment?" Coulson wondered.

"With Cerebro, the Professor's telepathy is greatly enhanced to encompass the planet so tracking down a psychic wouldn't be a problem. I'm not aware of the specifics but unless the Clairvoyant is some super powered psychic capable of shielding himself which is a possibility but also highly unlikely, I think we're dealing with some garden variety evil mastermind. Someone who has his hands in a lot of pots and people in the right places." He theorized.

"Even in SHIELD. The question is, how are we gonna catch him. He's been two steps ahead of us the entire time." Coulson remarked.

"And each time we've learned more and more. Even this encounter has given us more information that we didn't have before, so we use that. I hate to say it but we're gonna have to deal with this the old school way. Following bread crumbs until they lead to something that gets us past the grunts. Hayward didn't know anything. All I got from his head was just thoughts about his sister and orders given to him from that eye. No contact whatsoever with anyone we don't already know but I did pick up a few things." Will said and Coulson was all ears. "Like Mike Peterson the Centipede soldiers are drained after their assignments. Guess their version of super soldiers aren't exactly perfect."

"Well only one person was a success and not everyone gets a mystical tattoo granting them abilities like that." Coulson looked at the Tatau on Will's arm.

"Fair enough. Anyway, they were beyond drained after they broke Po out of prison. They were in bad condition, enough that you'd go to the hospital. They needed doctors and constant upkeep to get back into fighting condition so wherever Centipede is going they're gonna need doctors and substantial medical supplies on top of whatever kind of supplies they would need to make more Centipede soldiers." Will explained and Coulson saw the bread crumbs they could follow.

"We focus on finding their logistics network. We find that, we find them." Coulson said and Will nodded when his phone buzzed with a call from Skye.

"Skye, what's wrong?" He answered.

"We got trouble."

The team gathered in the living area of the BUS so they could go over what happened. Mike Peterson had called his son to talk to him and in doing so learned that Raina had found him. She was now holding his son Ace as a hostage.

"They want to make a trade. Ace for his father. They've set a time and a place." Coulson told everyone.

"Bloody savages." Fitz muttered.

"They want to experiment on him. Determine how he still has his abilities." Simmons theorized.

"And we're gonna let them? We've fought these guys before." Ward pointed out.

"We don't have a choice. The instructions they gave Mr. Peterson were very specific. I called HQ, told them to stand down." Coulson informed them.

"Stand down?" May asked. "We should at least have a hostage rescue unit in support of this."

"They said they would murder my son." Mike told them. "If we make one wrong move…"

"Any electronics, any comms, any sign of surveillance, and they'll terminate the arrangement." Coulson told them.

"I'll give myself up, no problem, get him back. I can figure it out from here." Mike seemed to be making it up in his head which was all they could really do.

"You're still recovering. We can't just hand you over to them like that. Can we?" Skye asked.

"Fitz-Simmons have a non-electric method of tracking him. An odorless scent that can be detected from 50 kilometers away like a bloodhound. That's our best bet. It's not ideal but its our best option." Will told her.

"After we make the trade, we'll be able to follow Mr. Peterson. Buy him some time to get his strength back. We'll find him." Coulson planned it out.

"I don't care what happens to me. As long as my boy is…"

"I promise you. We're gonna get your son back." Coulson swore.

Later that night…

Two SHIELD SUVs drove to a bridge in Long Beach that was under construction. They stopped at their end and waited like Raina told Mike to do. May and Coulson were in the lead vehicle and the former wasn't feeling very good about this at all. "At least let me escort him out for the exchange." May said to Coulson.

"Mr. Peterson requested me. I'm comfortable with that. And if things go south, I need you back here. Is Ward in position?" He asked.

"Yes, but I don't like any of this." May told him.

"There'd be something wrong with you if you did." Coulson remarked as he got out of the car. Fitz applied the scent to Mike before he and Coulson walked onto the bridge. Ward was perched up in a sniper position nearby with a clean view of the bridge. He kept Coulson and Mike in his sights as a sedan drove onto the bridge from the other side. One of the Centipede soldiers got out followed by Raina and they went to meet Coulson and Mike.

Will, Skye, Fitz-Simmons, and May could do nothing but watch from the cars. "Will…you think this will work?" Skye asked him.

"Everything will be fine, Skye." He answered but she wasn't sure if that did much to help with the worry she and the others had.

Coulson and Mike walked over to Raina and the Centipede soldier who were conveniently blocked by a cement truck, so Ward didn't have a shot on them.

"Hello, Mike. It's been a while. Your son is adorable. And he looks just like you." Raina greeted him before looking at Coulson. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure."

"Lucky for you." Coulson told her.

"I have to thank you, Mike. For holding up your end of the deal." Raina told him.

"Let's just make the trade. Give us Ace and you can have him." Coulson said to her.

"Oh, that wasn't the deal." Raina chuckled as Mike looked at Coulson with a guilty look.

"I'm so sorry."

"What's happening here, Mike?" Coulson asked him.

"Well, in exchange for his son, we asked Mike to deliver you." Raina said, revealing the truth. The part about wanting Mike was just a lie he told because he knew that they would never go with it. Mike charged at Raina and grabbed her by the throat in a fit of anger.

"I'm not a full strength, but I can still crush your throat. New deal! My son for your life!" Mike warned her.

"Sadly, my employer cares no more for my life than your son's. If I die, so does he. And his death will be so much worse." Raina warned him which is when Coulson touched Mike on the shoulder.

"You need to let her go." Coulson told him.

"I told them they could have me, but they want you. Why do they want you?" Mike asked.

"I don't know but if you kill this woman, you'll never see your son again." Coulson reminded him.

"But how will I look him in the eye? How will I explain what I did?"

"We talked about this." Coulson told him.

"I'm so sorry." Mike sighed in defeat before letting Raina go.

"Let's finish this." Coulson said to her, so she signaled the car and the other Centipede soldier got out with Mike's son.

"There's his son." Skye saw.

"Oh, thank god. I have no stomach for this." Simmons said.

"Fitz, on my mark activate comms and the tracker." May told him.

Will and the others watched as Mike returned to them with his son in his arms while Raina injected Coulson with something that knocked him out. The Centipede soldiers grabbed him, and they dragged him to the car.

"What happened? They took Coulson. All right, call it in. We need back up. I have a shot." Ward radioed.

"Negative, Ward. Do not shoot. You do and they'll kill Coulson." Will radioed back as the team got out of the car. "May, contact HQ, now!"

May contacted HQ for support as Mike handed Ace off to Skye before rushing back across the bridge to get Coulson. "Mike, stop!" Will shouted, running after him when he saw Mike stumble. That's when the trucks on the bridge exploded, knocking both Mike and Will back. The car on the other side of the bridge exploded and the team thought Coulson was dead, but they saw a helicopter fly up from underneath the bridge and fly away with a door gunner shooting at Ward's sniper spot. Will took out his pistol and fired all the rounds from the magazine. Some were just bullets, but one was a tracking round and it hit the side of the helicopter. He took out his phone and saw the tracking signal was good. "Tracking signals good. Let's move!"

Everyone scrambled back to the cars, but Will rushed over to get Ward. Coulson was nodding in and out of consciousness as he saw Po up in the co-pilot seat. "We land in half an hour." Po told Raina.

"Good. The sooner we begin, the better." She said.

"Whatever this is, whatever you think you're doing, it won't work. I won't give you what you want." Coulson told her.

"You will. And what we want is simple. We want you to tell us about the day after you died." Raina said. A bombshell of a reveal only not for Coulson. He knew exactly what they likely wanted him for. How?

Because this was all a part of the plan.

Flashback…several hours ago…

After the reveal that Centipede had Mike Peterson's son, the team began to plan accordingly. Halfway through that, Will said he needed to speak to Coulson in private, so they returned to his office to speak.

"This is a trap for you, Coulson." Will said and Coulson had a look of shock.

"What?"

"Mike Peterson was lying. I read his mind. Raina doesn't want him, they want you. The exchange is when they get you, they will return Ace. It's a trap." Will told him.

Coulson let that sink in for a few seconds and realized the implications of what was likely going to happen. They still needed to get Ace back and Mike, being the ever-desperate father, had lied to the team because he likely knew that they would never go along with the plan to give up Coulson. This would have completely thrown a wrench in things had it not been for the key factor that Raina and Centipede couldn't anticipate, that being Will.

"Well, this adds on some complications…but nothing we can't handle. I'll do it." Coulson said and Will did a double-take.

"Whoa, what? Coulson, I told you so we could figure out a way to stop that from happening. You know what you're signing up for right?" He asked him like Coulson was crazy.

"If it gets Mike Peterson his son back then I can deal with it. And it'll finally give us a better look into Centipede." Coulson answered only for Will to shake his head in disbelief.

"Yeah, except for the part where they'll do god knows what to you. Coulson, I know you're tough but if you think I'm gonna let you do this than you're insane."

"No different than what I've heard you have done in missions. You know that the Trojan horse tactic continues to work for a reason." Coulson reminded him.

"Yeah, but it's also still a massive gamble and I have assurances you don't." Will reminded him.

"Then give me an assurance." Coulson told him. "Centipede doesn't know about your powers. Surely you have a way that you can still track me after the exchange. Use your telepathy."

Will thought it over for a few seconds. "Sure, I can establish a mental link with you to stay connected without them knowing but that's not gonna be enough. I have no idea the limit on the mental link or my telepathy. I can't exactly read minds on the other side of the world so if they take you too far than I'll lose you and it'll be like trying to find a needle in a city full of haystacks…"

Coulson saw Will trail off like he thought of something. "What?"

"I might not be able to track you, but someone could, and they could tell me what's going on." Will realized the plan could work. "Ha! Pays to be a people person with a handsome face. Gives you a lengthy list of friends to call on. That solves one problem at least."

"Which leaves us the other. Why do they want me in particular?" Coulson pondered the question and the possible answers. "Intel, possibly?"

"Sure, they see a chance to get intel on SHIELD with a Level-8 operative but with their resources they could just abduct an agent when they're at home. And the fact that they asked for you specifically means likely they know who you are, so it has to be for more than just intel." Will pointed out and Coulson agreed. Going through all of this had to be for more than just Intel on SHIELD and it didn't fit with Centipede's MO. There was something they were missing in all of this that would make sense to Centipede's actions. Raina wanting Coulson had to be for a reason. That's when it clicked for Will, and he might understand why.

Coulson saw the look of realization come across his face. "What is it? You just thought of something."

"Yeah…" Will let out a heavy sigh as he ran his hands through this hair. "Coulson, you trust me, right?"

"I do. With my life." Coulson told him.

"Even if I've been lying to you for the past few months?" Will wondered. Coulson kept a stoic demeanor, but Will could tell he wasn't exactly thrilled about this.

"Lying about what?" Coulson asked.

"Fury didn't put me on the BUS because of what happened in Peru. Well, probably but he would have eventually found another reason to put me on the plane, it just happened to be advantageous. He wanted me on the plane to watch out for you, be a friend, back you up and keep you safe." Will admitted.

"That's not exactly a lie, Will. I already knew that but why?" Coulson asked when he remembered when he and Will met again after his recovery. "Does this have anything to do with how I died?"

"No. It has to do with how you were brought back." He answered. "I know you know it doesn't add up. You have gaps in your memories, you've been having nightmares, and you're not getting the answers you want."

"I trust the system. SHIELD keeps secrets for a reason, Will. You know that better than any of us." Coulson reminded him.

"Yeah, but it was you and the others who taught me that sometimes doing the right thing means going against orders. Blind faith isn't enough. I didn't know the truth until I met you again when I turned Level-8. Fury didn't tell me anything until then and he ordered that I was not to tell you anything. And begrudgingly, I accepted those orders, but I promised myself that the second you were ready to know the truth I would tell you even if Fury ordered me not to." Will admitted.

"You could get into trouble for that." Coulson warned him.

"Sometimes to really protect someone means letting them know the truth and going forward from that." Will defended his stance on this. "If you want to know everything, I'll tell you."

Coulson thought over everything for a bit. Will was right that he had many questions regarding his death and resurrection after Loki stabbed him on the Helicarrier. While he was alive and well there were things that didn't feel right or like before. Over the past several months, Coulson began to feel something wrong with the story about his recovery. Months in a hospital and then resting on a beach in Tahiti. He felt there was something more going on, but he couldn't figure it out. Even trying to get access to his file didn't help with Director Fury locking access to it. Now here Will was telling him that he knew the truth about what was going on and that Director Fury had told him to keep it a secret. Still, Will being Will, would tell Coulson the truth if he wanted. He could finally have the answers he needed but then again there's the saying about blissful ignorance. Who knows what kind of Pandora's box knowing the truth could open but Coulson needed to know.

"Give me the cliff notes version. We need to focus on getting Mr. Peterson's son back and dealing with Centipede. After, I want to know everything." Coulson told him.

"Fair enough. Everything that I know is what Fury told me, but you were dead for a lot longer than they told you. I don't know how long but Fury used something called Project T.A.H.I.T.I. to bring you back to life. He started it as some kind of project in the event one of the Avengers was mortally wounded. As for why you don't remember anything, I'll leave that for later. It's a lot and requires alcohol." Will admitted.

"All right." Coulson took a deep breath, feeling a small sense of relief that he got at least one answer. A special SHIELD project brought him back to life. He still had some questions, but he could table that until they got Ace and dealt with Centipede.

End flashback…

Coulson looked at Raina, keeping up a fake look of concern but internally he was ready. "Will, can you hear me?" He thought in his head.

"Yeah, loud and clear." Will replied, helping Ward to the van. "Professor, how about on your end?"

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Westchester, New York

Deep underground in the secret parts of the Xavier Institute reserved and used only by the X-men, Professor Xavier was in the Cerebro chamber to communicate with Will and Coulson. Attached to Cerebro, the Professor would be able to track Coulson while he was taken away by Raina and Centipede even if he were moved to the other side of the planet. Will called in that favor and the Professor was making good on it with Cerebro marking Coulson's unique brain signature so he could find him again.

"All clear on my end. Don't worry, Agent Coulson. I have you locked and can keep you in touch with Will." Professor Xavier told him.

"Thank you, Professor." Coulson replied.

"Coulson, are you sure you still want to go through with this? Willingly giving yourself up to them and being subjected to god knows what. I can get you right now and we can just go from there." Will told him.

"I'll be liable to learn more if they think they've won. Don't worry, Will. I can handle it and if I need you, I know how to contact you. I'll be ok." Coulson assured him. "You have my back?"

"Always, Coulson. No matter what. You need me and I'll be there, I swear." Will promised.

"I know." Coulson replied. He may be upset with Will lying and spying on him, but he knew he could count on him when he needed it.

Line Break xxxxx

Chicago, Illinois

In a secure room in one of Chicago's fanciest and most expensive hotels, international arms dealer Timothy Vanchat was conducting a business deal with someone who had enough money to buy one of his more specialty items. Alien technology. Vanchat opened a small box to reveal a piece of a Chitauri arm gauntlet, likely stolen from the Battle of New York either from SHIELD or Damage Control. "100% premium-grade Chitauri metal. As rare as it gets."

"How'd you get your hands on this, Vanchat?" His buyer asked.

"It's what I do. Find alien scrap no one else can, then offer it to people who fully appreciate my efforts." Vanchat replied.

"I appreciate the hell out of them. You can name your price." The buyer said when a metal disk slid into the room and beeped. "Is that a Roomba?"

The disk erupted in a bright flash of blinding light before Ward, May, and Will rushed in. Ward knocked out the first guard and tangled with the second while May punched and kicked two guards of her own before taking them to the ground with a dual scissor takedown. Vanchat picked up a chair and hit Ward in the shoulder, but Will then punched him in the face, put him in a guillotine choke and kneed him in the stomach several times before slipping around him and suplexing him through a table. One of the guards got up but Will pulled out his pistol and shot him in the heart before aiming it at the others. "Anyone else want to do something stupid?" He warned them and they raised their hands. "May, call it in."

She nodded and tapped her earpiece. "This is Agent May, target is secure. Move in to extract."

Not two seconds after she said that did a SHIELD tactical team march in the room putting everyone at gunpoint. Will looked down at Vanchat and smirked. "Mr. Vanchat, we need to talk." He knocked him out with a pistol whip to the face and they took him away.

The BUS

The team returned to the BUS where Simmons immediately tended to Ward. He had fractured a few fingers and his bullet wound from before hadn't completely healed yet. "Impressive. You actually managed to reopen all your stitches." Simmon chastised him.

"I just hope that Vanchat can lead us to Centipede." Ward remarked.

"Well, the Chitauri metal he was selling is an exact match to what Centipede used for their device." Simmons told him.

"We find Centipede, we find Coulson." Ward said as she fixed him up when they heard Fitz arguing with some SHIELD scientists.

"Don't ask questions, Agent Kob. Just get me the five-millimeter injector. That's an order." Simmons told him and the agent left. "Honestly, how many agents do they think they can cram on this plane?"

"It's only gonna get more crowded. We're set to pick up more men when Agent Hand dumps Vanchat off at the Fridge." Ward told him.

"Honestly, I think it's good they're here. We need fresh eyes. It's been 36 hours since Agent Coulson was taken and none of us have gotten any sleep." Simmons said. "Though I'm a little upset that Mike is no longer with us here."

"After what happened with him and Ace, it was smart of Agent Hand to return him to headquarters. Give him a chance to recover and make sure that Ace is ok." Ward replied.

"Just glad we got them back safe and sound." Fitz admitted when they heard footsteps and saw Will walk down to the lab.

"Guys, Agent Hand is giving another briefing." He told them.

"Oh joy." Fitz muttered as Ward put his shirt on and the four walked up to the main meeting area where Hand was briefing the other agents.

"There were no fatalities at the exchange and other physical evidence has proven scarce. No physical evidence was found when we tracked down the helicopter, they used to transport Agent Coulson, indicating they transferred to another vehicle. Nothing relating to Mr. Po, his Centipede associates, or their location has been found." Hand informed everyone.

"Any progress with Vanchat?" Ward questioned.

"Nothing actionable, Agent Ward. But I have my best interrogator in there right now." She assured him, bringing up footage of the interrogation but it honestly looked like the two were just having a cordial talk. "Vanchat will talk, and rest assured, when he does, not a single stone will be left unturned until we take down Centipede."

"And Find Agent Coulson/And get Coulson back." Fitz-Simmons added.

[Alarm Blaring]

The SHIELD logo appeared on their screen and the system was locked down. "We have a security breach. Someone's hacking the system." Hand said and May looked at Will. The two nodded before he walked over to Skye's bunk and opened it to reveal Skye working on her laptop.

"Just in time. Can you override this?" Skye asked, holding up the SHIELD tracking bracelet when Agent Hand walked over to see Skye.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hand asked her.

"The money trail's our key to finding Coulson. I just need to gain access to Vanchat's financials, and from there, I should be able to trace Centipede's payments and then hack into their account." Skye explained.

"You're the consultant, the one who shot Agent Sitwell." Hand remembered.

"Technically, that wasn't me." Skye corrected her.

"I want you off this plane immediately." Hand ordered before walking away.

"What?" Ward asked as Skye got up and followed Hand.

"Wait. I know I'm not some bad-ass field agent like May or Ward, but this is what I do. You can't just kick me off this mission." Skye said as Hand turned to look at her. "Listen, I'll do whatever you say. All this protocol crap doesn't matter to me. All that matters to me is Coulson."

"Well, all this protocol crap matters to me. You're a distraction and you're gone." Hand told her so Ward stepped up to vouch for her.

"Agent Hand. I know Skye's methods are unorthodox but she's a member of this team. She can help."

Hand then looked at Agent May. "Agent May, your professional opinion? Will this girl be of any use to us on this plane?"

"No. Not to you but under his command?" May aimed her head at Will. "Yes."

Skye and Ward smirked, seeing May step up to defend their own. Agent Hand on the other hand wasn't exactly thrilled but Will had a smirk on her face as well. "Agent Detmer, I'm guessing I don't need to hear your professional opinion, not that it would be professional."

"Actually, on this case it would be. As Agent Ward has mentioned, her methods are unorthodox, which is precisely what makes her a valued asset to the team. Her line of thinking is different which means she can see things that we don't. And Skye is without a doubt the best hacker and computer specialist I've seen so her skills will be vital to solving this quickly and getting Coulson back. And not to pull rank but I'm second in command of this team which Skye is a consultant of. With Coulson gone, I'm in command and Skye's not going anywhere." Will told Agent Hand.

"Very well. Let's hope your blind faith in her isn't misplaced." Agent Hand told him before she departed to handle some logistics.

"I bet that felt good." May remarked.

"It did." Will agreed.

"So, does this mean you can take this off now?" Skye held up her bracelet.

"No. Coulson locked that. Only he can take it off. Work with EDI on what you need. She can help you." Will told her before looking at Ward and May. "I know the past 36 hours have been tough but we're close. We will get Coulson back no matter what."

Ward and May nodded, leaving to get back to work while Skye stayed behind for a bit. "You think Coulson's ok, right?"

"He'll be fine, Skye. Coulson's a lot tougher than he looks and Centipede needs him for a reason so they can't kill him. We'll get him back." Will promised her.

"I know it seems impossible, but you seem to have a way of making the impossible happen." Skye admitted before she left to get to work.

Will stood there, feeling bad that the others were worried to death, but it was necessary. When the time was right, they'd spring their trap and get Coulson back. He just hoped that things with Coulson weren't going that badly.

With Coulson…

Coulson was lying down on a massage table in Tahiti as he felt his masseuse working in his neck. "Can you feel that?"

"Don't stop." Coulson muttered when a cabana boy walked in with a tray of drinks.

"Listen to him. Who ordered this?" The server asked.

[Gasps]

Coulson was pulled out of his dream/flashback to Tahiti as he took a moment to look at his surroundings while trying to calm down. His heart was racing, and his head hurt a bit with blood coming from his left nostril. He saw a male mannequin dressed up in 1950's era attire, boarded up windows in a room that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in decades and he was strapped to some kind of machine that looked like something hospitals would use to get MRIs.

"It seems you passed out." He heard, seeing a guard in the corner before turning to see Eddison Po sitting in a chair, sipping some water. "Now maybe you're ready to share with us what memories you see."

"I saw…Jordan hitting that game-winner over Russell in the '98 finals. So, clutch." Coulson quipped and Po just exhaled through his nose in frustration.

"Agent Coulson. We're gonna turn the machine back on and open your mind. It's time to stop fighting it. If you don't, you won't survive the process." Po warned him.

"I'll let you kill me before I give you anything." Coulson told him. "It seems you have a taste for that anyway. You nearly killed Mike Peterson…"

"What nearly happened to Mr. Peterson was of his own choice. We gave him his life and his child, unscathed. You're just upset because his death would have hit so close to home. Seeing a boy lose his father at such a young age, as you did." Po said and Coulson kept as calm and strong of a face possible to not give away anything. "A defining moment. The Clairvoyant saw that."

"I hate to break it to you, but your telepathic friend is a fraud. I've seen real telepaths, real psychics in action and if he really was a Clairvoyant than you'd have all the answers you want. Instead, here we are." Coulson told him.

"It's true. This is strange. My friend can see that you died. You went cold. Your heart was torn to pieces. What the Clairvoyant can't see is what happened after. How they brought you back from the dead. For some reason, Agent Coulson, you're different. Now, why is that?" Po questioned and all Coulson did was smirk.

"My friend is gonna find me. And when he does…he's gonna make you wish you were dead."

Po just sighed in annoyance. "So, we have to do this the hard way."

Po grabbed a cattle prod and zapped Coulson who toughed it out like only a true SHIELD agent could. Although a part of him was regretting his choice in being offered up as a Guinea pig. After some more shocking and attempting brain messing via the machine, the guard put Coulson's body onto a cot to give him a moment of rest. He knew that with him being the reason they were doing this that they couldn't screw things up badly or else they'd kill him. That gave him a sense of security knowing that the worse things they could do they couldn't or else they'd kill him, and he could tough it out. He'd been through worse. Like Will thought, Centipede or the Clairvoyant wanted to know how Coulson was brought back to life. That answers some questions and their current methods also confirmed that the Clairvoyant couldn't be a psychic because if he was than he would know this and even if he was a telepath, he would still know more details that even Coulson did like Will does. He could simply go into Coulson's mind and read it but the fact they were hooking him up to this memory machine confirmed the Clairvoyant was just the name of a regular bad guy, someone who wanted answers. Granted the fact he knew personal details about Coulson was a concern as it meant he had access to some real information that most couldn't but at the very least this wasn't an evil telepath/psychic.

"Professor, can you hear me?" Coulson thought, concentrating with immense intensity like he was told too.

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Westchester, New York

Professor Xavier was in his office at the institute going over paperwork for the school and the students. With the coming holiday season of Thanksgiving, Christmas and then New Years, many students would be going home. Including the students currently away at college like Scott, Jean, and the others of the X-men they'd be heading back home. Some students would remain at the Institute like Rogue and Ellie with Professor Xavier and some of the teachers, but most would be heading home. It was a nice quiet time for the school when it wasn't filled with children, allowing the Professor to handle some logistical work.

[Beep]

The phone on his desk interrupted the Professor's work so he answered. "Yes, Hank? What is it?"

"Cerebro picked up an incoming signal from Agent Coulson."

"I'm on my way." Professor Xavier put his pen down and piloted his wheelchair to the secret elevator down to the lower levels. He entered Cerebro and saw Hank checking the dashboard and computer to see that Coulson's mental message was coming from somewhere near the Mojave desert. Since Professor Xavier couldn't monitor Agent Coulson's mind 24/7, he and Will devised a work around. The Professor logged Coulson's unique brainwave signature into Cerebro and tasked it to monitor and track him. Cerebro was usually used to monitor and track mutants, but it could track humans as well. With Coulson's unique brainwave signature locked in, Cerebro would be automatically able to track him down similar to a GPS tracker. All the Professor had to do was slip on the headset and Cerebro would connect him to Coulson's mind.

Which is exactly what happened as the Professor closed his eyes and activated Cerebro. The machine connected his mind all the way from Upstate New York to somewhere in Nevada.

"Agent Coulson, are you there?" The Professor communicated telepathically with Cerebro assisting him with long-range communication.

"Yes, I hear you Professor. Thank god this little trick you and Will came up with works. For a second there I was worried it didn't."

"Not to worry, Agent Coulson. Cerebro had a lock on your signal the entire time. What is going on? Are you, all right?" The Professor asked him.

"A bit bruised, tired, and hot but I'll live. Wherever Centipede has me doesn't seem to be any kind of lab or special facility, but it doesn't look like I'm going anywhere anytime soon. Do you have my location?"

Professor Xavier checked on the dashboard and got the coordinates to Agent Coulson's location. "I do. You're located in the Mojave desert, approximately one hundred miles from Las Vegas."

"Sent it to Will. Centipede isn't taking me anywhere and I'm not letting them get the intel they want. I thought this could be the chance to get eyes on the Clairvoyant but no, he's not showing up anytime soon."

"Of course. I'm sending it now. Just hang on, Agent Coulson." Professor Xavier replied.

Back with Will…

The BUS was moving over the Pacific Ocean after several leads that SHIELD dug up managed to pay off. With Skye's tracking bracelet she couldn't hack like she used to, so she used EDI to get the information she needed by hacking into Vanchat's Swiss bank account. She was able to get the banking information on everyone he's done business with including Centipede but also included a lot of other horrible people. Despots, militant groups, terrorists etc. Granted they were all created under aliases or fake names, but it was a starting point and one of those people he did business with had paid him a lot of money for Chitauri metal, so it had to be Centipede. She was narrowing down the list and going through the banking information to find out what she could. That wasn't the only break in the case they got as Ward managed to get Vanchat to spill all the information he had including the names of his buyers. When Ward saw that Agent Hand's interrogation method wasn't getting them anywhere anytime fast, he took over. Turns out that the fear of getting sucked out of a C-17 airplane when its 30,000 feet in the air would turn any obnoxious, condescending, arrogant detainee into a scared, compliant one fast.

Will was coordinating the agents in the compact confines of the BUS as Agent Hand picked up some more agents. He felt his phone buzz, so he checked, and it notified him that he was getting a message on his private terminal. He headed to his bunk where he saw Goose taking a nap. Goose didn't like all the people around, so she stayed in his bunk and just slept which actually made her seem more like an earth cat. He grabbed his encrypted laptop activating the message system, letting it encrypt before a message came through from $T.

[Agent C contacted Professor X. Not taken to lab but hidden away at secret location. No contact with Clairvoyant. Ready for pickup. The professor said the place is heavily guarded. Be careful. 35° 34′ 12″ N, 115° 28′ 12″ W.]

Will breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Coulson was safe and that their plan was working. He checked the coordinates, and they were in the Mojave Desert so now that he knew where Coulson was it was time to get him back. He then sent out a message to the username Red-Headed Badass.

[Got the location. Coordinate 35° 34′ 12″ N, 115° 28′ 12″ W. Gear up for a fight and meet for pickup.]

He had to wait for a minute but then three little dots came up indicating someone was writing a message before it came through.

[Roger that. Will do some recon. Bringing Old Fossil and Longshot.]

Will chuckled before he closed his laptop and went to tell Ward and the others. Ward was in the main briefing area where Hand was giving some agents a debrief with the monitor showing all the highlighted locations, they got from Vanchat's interrogation. "We're pursuing every known buyer of Chitauri metals around the globe. The largest is a warehouse in Sydney. We're heading there now. This is our chance to take down Centipede. I want everyone in full tactical." Hand told the Agents.

"And about Coulson?" Ward asked.

"If we're lucky, Centipede's holding him in Syndey. Dismissed." Hand said and they all dispersed. "Agent Ward, a moment. First, your friend Skye attempts to hack into a Swiss Bank then Vanchat almost flies out of the interrogation room. Do we have a problem?

"No, Agent Hand. Your man wasn't getting answers, so I stepped in." Ward answered.

"Without my permission." She remarked and he nodded. "Well, congratulations. Thanks to you and your unique interrogations skills, we now have active strike teams running raids all over the world. The question is, why?"

"Excuse me?" Ward asked her.

"It's unprecedented, this kind of response for a Level-8 operative. The sheer manpower involved." Agent Hand listed off and Ward agreed. "I've been on the phone all day. Director Fury. Commander Hill. Everyone wants an update. Frankly, I don't understand it. No single agent is that important."

They heard someone approach and saw it was Will. "Coulson is. Speaking of which, this is where we part ways."

"What are you talking about?" Agent Hand asked.

"I got a message from one of my contacts. Says that Centipede has Coulson in a secret location located in the Mojave desert in Nevada. He sent me the coordinates and it's actionable so I'm taking the team there." Will explained.

"You found him?" Ward asked and Will nodded.

"How actionable is this intel? Who is this source?" Agent Hand asked.

"The intel is actionable, and it matches up with the intel Skye was able to get us from the Swiss bank account that's tied to Centipede. They recently purchased a property in the desert one hundred miles from Las Vegas. And my source is confidential but has never let me down before." Will answered.

"Sounds more like a hunch than a lead. Either way, we've had confirmation of activity at the lab in Sydney and I'm going to take us out of our way on a hunch." Agent Hand countered.

"You don't have to. My quinjet's still attached to the BUS. You and SHIELD can deal with the Centipede sites while I take the team to investigate. No sense in wasting fuel and you need the space more than we do." Will said before he looked at Ward. "Ward, tell the others. Tell them to bring what they need and meet me in the quinjet."

Ward nodded and left, leaving Will with Agent Hand. "A part of me believes I should stop you from going on a fools errand but I'm not exactly at liberty to stop you."

"No, not really. It'd end badly if you tried." He pointed out.

"Oh, I'm sure but I'm more talking about the fact that Director Fury told me if you had a hunch or lead to follow that I was not to stop you. He puts a lot of faith in you, it's astonishing really. For someone so young." Agent Hand told him. She was subtle in her undertone, but it was clear she knew something was up and more than meets the eye with Will.

"Gifted youth. Pays to be one of Fury's favorites. Best of luck with your mission, Agent Hand." Will said before he headed to his bunk to get his gear.

"You as well, Agent Detmer. I'll radio HQ to send backup." Agent Hand informed him.

"No need. Backup will meet us there. Cost me one hell of a favor to call in though." He replied, making it loud enough for her to hear.

Will grabbed a duffel bag with his gear and headed up to the quinjet. He parked himself in the pilot's chair and did a quick pre-flight check. Gas was topped off and he began inputting the coordinates while making sure everything was set as the rest of the team began to pile in. Due to him having the Aston Martin and his motorcycle in the Quinjet things were a little cramped but everyone managed to get a seat with May joining him as his co-pilot.

"Will, how sure are you of this intel?" Simmons asked him.

"Sure enough to take us there. We're getting him back." Will promised her and the others. "Fitz, I just send you the coordinates. Check satellites in the area and see if you can get anything on the layout."

"On it." Fitz took out a tablet to do some checking.

"All right. Let's go." Will said to May.

"Roger that." May powered up the engines which purred to life. "Deactivating magnetic clamp."

"Roger." Will hit a few buttons to deactivate the magnetic clamp and latches that connected the Quinjet to the BUS. May switched the Quinjet to hover mode and the turbines pushed the plane up off the BUS. "All right. Coordinates are locked in. We'll get there in an hour. Hang on, everyone."

Will turned the Quinjet back into jet mode and maxed the accelerator back to the US. Suffice it to say that Centipede would not like what was about to happen.

Line Break xxxxx

Mojave Desert, Nevada, USA

Will's quinjet entered Nevada airspace after about 50 minutes of flight time. Knowing that he couldn't fly straight there as it would alert Centipede they were coming and put Coulson in danger, he dropped down and parked about thirty-five miles from the coordinates. The team saw nothing but barren desert and hills for miles.

"Why are we so far away?" Skye asked.

"I don't want to risk getting too close. They hear a quinjet coming and they could put Coulson in danger." Will answered. "Fitz, did you get anything on the coordinates?

"Yeah, satellite footage shows a small little town about 35 miles from here." Fitz showed everyone on the tablet, and they saw small building, no more than maybe 16 all close together like a little town as he said.

"They're holding Coulson in a town in the middle of nowhere?" Ward asked.

"I don't think so. No town is supposed to be there." Fitz answered.

"So, what is it?" May questioned.

"We'll find out soon enough. We're waiting for backup." Will grabbed his duffle bag and moved into the cockpit to change.

"What backup?" Skye asked as Will closed the door to change.

"When I got the coordinates, I called in a favor for backup and sent them ahead to recon the area. They should be here soon." He replied.

"You trust your backup?" Ward asked him.

"They're trusty worthy, Ward. You'll understand when you see them." He replied when they heard the distant sound of a car. "That's them now."

Ward, Skye, Fitz-Simmons, and Skye exited the quinjet to see a SHIELD SUV speed across the desert to them, kicking up sand as it did. It slowed down and stopped right next to them as the sand obscured their vision for a bit before the driver's and two passenger side doors opened and then closed. Once the team got a sight on who their backup was, they went wide-eyed, slack jawed, weak in the knees, and every other kind of similar meaning word/expression.

"Oh my god…" Skye muttered.

"Unbelievable…" Fitz added.

"I can't believe it…" Simmons whispered.

"What the…" Was all Ward could mutter.

"Definitely wasn't expecting this." May admitted.

Standing there outside the SHIELD van was Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton AKA Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. The Captain was wearing his dark blue and grey SHIELD Strike Team suit while Widow and Hawkeye were wearing their custom SHIELD tactical gear sans the weapons and Cap's shield.

"Agent May, good to see you again." Romanoff greeted her.

"Agent Romanoff. I wasn't expecting to see you. Agent Barton." She greeted them back. "Captain."

"Agent May and you must be Agent Ward." Steve shook hands with him.

"Yes, sir. Uh, apologies we weren't expecting you."

"It's all right. We're here to help get Agent Coulson back. Just returned from a recon of the area." Barton showed them a tablet of the surveillance footage they recorded. "They're holding him in an old nuclear bomb test site. The US army used to test nuclear bombs on sites like this back in the 40s and 50s. When the tests stopped it just slipped through the cracks. We think he's being held here, fourth building on the western sector."

"That building has a greater thermal reading than the others so they're powering something in there. Most likely, whatever they're doing to Coulson and Centipede fortified their position to protect it. Enemy snipers have their eyes on the perimeter and at least twenty-five armed guards scattered around." Barton explained and swiped the page to show them pictures of the guards walking around doing patrol routes.

"No offense meant, Captain but the odds aren't exactly looking great." Skye admitted.

"Skye's right. With the two Centipede soldiers it was tough enough, but they have backup now. We should call in SHIELD for additional reinforcements. If we go in with what we have, Centipede had a chance to slip away with Coulson." Ward suggested.

"Not to worry, Agent Ward. We've already planned ahead for that but considering the greater level of threat, your team will stay behind while we make the main assault." Steve told him.

"What? No way. We came here to get Coulson so we're going to help." Skye declared.

"We appreciate and admire your bravery, but we can't do our job if we're worried about you or your team. We'll be able to handle it easier and move faster if we don't have to worry about you getting caught in the crossfire. Once we confirm the area is clear than you can move in with the Quinjet." Romanoff planned.

"You'll still need help. That place is heavily guarded and with the two Centipede soldiers there than you're gonna need all the help you can get." May told her.

"Agent May is right. At least let me and her come with." Ward suggested.

"Much appreciated, Agent Ward and it's admirable but we've already got it covered. The four of us will handle it and when its clear you can come in after." Steve told him.

"Four? Wait, Will's going with you guys?" Skye said in disbelief. "Ok, I get he's an amazing agent but if you're not gonna let Ward or May go why him? Just because he called you three in?"

"Why don't you ask him?" Barton asked as he, Steve, and Romanoff glanced over at the Quinjet. The team turned around and they saw something that completely blew their minds, even more so than meeting Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.

Will disembarked the Quinjet but not in his SHIELD tactical gear the team was accustomed to seeing or even in his regular clothes. Hell, seeing him in a business suit would have been a surprise but this blew their minds. He was wearing the black and blue gear/uniform of Aegis of the Avengers but without his hood and mask on.

"No…way…" Skye muttered in disbelief while everyone else was just either frozen in shock or pure disbelief.

"I know, I explain later. Don't worry, we'll get Coulson back." Will told them before looking at Romanoff, Barton, and Steve. "Ready?"

"Waiting on you." Romanoff told him so he pulled up his hood which made his mask come up and form on his head. The eyes on the mask powered up and glowed blue as he looked at the team.

"We'll be back." He told them before the four Avengers got into the SHIELD SUV and drove away.

The sand settled back on the ground as the team was still in shock to learn that Will was Aegis of the Avengers. "Uh…uh…" Fitz-Simmons were for once completely stunned into silence.

"Holy shit." Skye said.

"Yeah…" Ward agreed.

"Actually, that explains a lot." May remarked as they headed into the quinjet to monitor things and wait for the go ahead.

At the abandoned nuclear testing site, the guards were stationed around keeping a dutiful watch on the perimeter while Raina tended to Agent Coulson. Eddison Po was no longer involved after his failed attempts at getting Agent Coulson to break. He believed that brute force and torture would get him answers and make Coulson cooperate, very military thinking but it was getting them nowhere and the longer they wasted the sooner SHIELD would find them. Raina believed differently but when the Clairvoyant called for an update and Po wasn't getting them anywhere, he had Po killed. Turns out Po's cellphone was rigged with a special emitter that fried his brain, leaving Raina in charge. She believed she could get somewhere using persuasion and playing to Coulson's weaknesses. Either way, the Clairvoyant wanted results.

The sniper keeping watch over the south sector saw something in the distance, so he adjusted his scope to get a better view. It was something moving fast and kicking up a lot of sand but as it got closer, he was able to see it was an SUV heading straight for them.

"We've got incoming. One vehicle coming straight to us." The sniper reported so the guards quickly maneuvered to the southern sector of their site and took up defensive positions with their guns. Most had assault rifles, but a few had LMGS or MMGs and set them up in cover positions. "Target is still coming in. eight hundred meters and closing. Taking a shot."

The sniper lined up a shot on the car. Given the distance and wind factor, he aimed for the front windshield in the hopes to hit the driver. One deep breath and pull of the trigger later, his bullet hit the front wind shield but didn't go through. The SUV had reinforced bulletproof glass, so he fired another shot and then another. After the fifth shot, it finally managed to break through the glass, but the car kept driving and was getting even closer, so the sniper quickly reloaded. "Open fire."

Everyone did and a highly affective firing line lit up the SHIELD SUV with everything they had. It was now about 400 meters away and closing fast, so the assault rifles, LMGs and MMGs put down a hellfire of bullets that riddled the SUV all over. Eventually the bullets managed to pierce the tires causing the vehicle to swerve, which in the desert wasn't ideal as one bad swerve caused it to fall to its side and it began flipping around violently until it finally stopped about one hundred meters away. The guards didn't move from their spot, keeping their weapons and eyes trained on the crashed SUV, thinking that this could be the prelude to a larger attack. They saw the car behind to move so they thought that maybe someone was still alive inside.

While most of the guards were focused on the southern sector of the area and the incoming car, a few stuck around to monitor the rest of the area. The smart and tactical thing to do but the men of Centipede were outmatched. Two guards walked past a building on their usual patrol route when they were tapped on the shoulders. They turned around to immediately struggle to breath and hold their necks after precise strikes to their throats, making it so that they couldn't cry out for help. One got kicked in the groin while the other was hit with an elbow to the solar plexus and then a kick to the left knee before both were taken to the ground with a dual scissor takedown and rendered unconscious soon after. A third guard walked around a corner and saw what happened, but a small electrical dart hit him in the chest and his entire body seized up from the powerful shock before a small figure charged forward and took him to the ground with a headscissors takedown and snapped his neck. The attacker responsible for the three quick, effective and silent takedowns/kills was Black Widow. She quietly and carefully made her way to the building where Coulson was being held.

A sniper hidden in some bushes had her in his line of sight so he took aim but before he could pull the trigger he was killed with an arrow to the head. A guard was waiting by the house Widow was heading to. He had a shotgun ready to kill her when he felt something strike him in the back. He stumbled forward with blood dropping out of his mouth and looked down to see an arrow protruding from his chest before he dropped down dead. Hawkeye then stepped out from the corner with his bow ready and an arrow on the drawstring. He stacked up on the other side of the door as Black Widow checked it for traps. Once she confirmed it was clean, she pulled out one of her Glock 17 pistols and slowly entered with Hawkeye right behind him. They entered what looked like a living room and made their way to the bedroom where Coulson was being held. Widow gave him a nod and Hawkeye nodded back before the two kicked in the door and entered. Coulson was sitting on the slab of some weird MRI machine next to a woman in a blue flower dress with two guards in the room and an additional body on the ground. Hawkeye fired his arrow at one of the guards, killing him instantly with a shot through the heart while Black Widow killed the other with two gunshots to the chest and then fired a taser dart from her Widow's Bite gauntlets at the woman. She fell to the ground and once the two spies/assassins confirmed they were clear they walked over to Coulson.

"Hey, Phil. How're you feeling?" Black Widow asked.

"Feeling peachy but could use a shower and some water." Coulson quipped. "Thanks for coming."

"Don't mention it. Glad your ok." Hawkeye said to him before he tapped his earpiece. "We got him. Go loud."

"Roger that."

The guards that had converged in the southern sector heard the gunshots go off in the town, so they turned around which was a big mistake because out of nowhere the car that they shot to pieces suddenly smashed into their firing line like something dropped it on them. Several guards were killed, and the rest were confused but didn't have the chance to figure out what was going on as Aegis dropped to the ground in a superhero landing and smashed his fist into the ground, making a powerful telekinetic shockwave that knocked everyone back. A few were far back enough to just get knocked to the ground, so they quickly got up and aimed their rifles only for them to see Aegis throw something at them but didn't actually throw anything. They were momentarily confused until two guards were hit by something going fast that it sent them flying into one of the old houses. Said thing that hit them was Captain America who Aegis threw shield first like a bullet. He rolled from the impact and held his shield up to block a barrage of bullets as he closed the distance and push-kicked a guard into an old car display. He threw his shield and knocked a guard off the roof he was perched up on before closing the distance to another guard and grappling him to the ground. He took him out with a vicious right cross to the face before breaking his gun in half and throwing both parts at two other guards. The second his shield returned to his hand he hurled it again, hitting both guards before he leapt forward and took out one with a flying side kick and took out the other with a jumping back kick.

A sniper had lined up a shot on the Captain and fired but before the bullet reached him it froze in place and flew back to where it was shot from, killing the shooter. The two Centipede enhanced soldiers stepped forward as Captain America tightened his shield on his left arm. Two new super soldiers were against the original and, liking their odds, they charged so Captain America met them head on. The captain leapt forward shield first and bashed into one, knocking him down on the ground and punched him in the face before rolling forward to avoid the other. He flipped into a butterfly spin and threw his shield, hitting the second one in the face before landing a butterfly spin kick to his head and then a push kick to knock him back. The first soldier got up and attacked with a quick flurry of punches and kicks that the captain blocked and parried with ease while hitting him with his own jabs and strikes to his face. The captain landed a right cross to his face and then a shield bash to his stomach that knocked him back a bit before hitting him with a spinning hook kick that he then turned into a tornado kick to hit the other Centipede soldier. The two Centipede soldiers attacked in unison, but the Captain met their punches and kicks equally and with his shield he couldn't be beaten. He uppercut one with his shield and blocked the punch of the other before shoulder pushing him away and landing a 360-spin kick to the first one's head that knocked him to the ground, allowing him to focus on the second. He took the offensive, bashing the Centipede soldier in the face and chest with his shield before he did a leg sweep and knocked him out with an ax kick.

The other Centipede soldier got up but before he could charge, he was blasted by a blue energy beam that sent him flying away until he crashed through one of the buildings. Aegis walked over to Captain America with his left-hand glowing blue, but it quickly faded away. "I had that." Captain America assured him.

"I know but they're annoying and tricky. Just wanted to make sure." Aegis said as one of the still conscious guards managed to pull the pin on a grenade and tossed it at them, but Aegis flicked it back with his telekinesis, so it killed him.

"Still, they were pretty good. Any other group would have difficulty with them." Captain American told him.

"They are part of a larger problem I'm working on." Aegis replied as they walked through the town and saw Black Widow and Hawkeye helping Coulson out of the building, he was in. He looked bad, having been beaten and such but he would live. "Coulson, you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for coming." Coulson said to him before looking at Captain America. "Captain, good to see you again. Sorry it had to be under these circumstances."

"Just glad to see you're alive again, Coulson. When Will told us you were alive, I didn't know what to think but I'm just glad to have you back." Steve told him and Coulson smiled.

"Come on, Phil. Let's get you out of here." Romanoff said as they helped him out. They signaled the quinjet to come pick them up and everyone was reunited. Coulson was safe.

An hour later…

Hidden SHIELD Base, California

The hunt for Centipede was a success. SHIELD teams had taken down Centipede labs all around the world with Agent Hand coordinating the efforts. Vanchat was in prison, and they got all his buyers as well, which was a bonus and Agent Coulson was back. Raina, the two Centipede soldiers and few of the guards who weren't killed were taken into custody for transport so all in all, good day. Skye, Fitz-Simmons, Ward, and May watched in satisfaction as Raina was taken into custody. Agent Coulson got cleaned up, a clean bill of health from the medics and met with Agent Hand on the ramp of the BUS.

"Just got off the phone with headquarters. Director Fury was very relieved." Agent Hand told him.

"I understand you've been busy. Heard you put some miles on my plane." Coulson said.

"The manhunt has yielded some impressive results. Centipede operations have been taken down around the globe." Hand informed him. "I'm glad to see that Agent Detmer's hunch paid off. Or else he'd have called in four of the Avengers for nothing. Must have been one big favor he called in to get them to help."

"A big one, something he'll be working off for a while but he's a people person. Helps to have friends in high places. Sorry they couldn't stick around but they had to get going." Coulson told her. "Any word on the Clairvoyant?"

"Nothing yet but it's going to be awfully hard to stay hidden now that the Clairvoyant's on SHIELD's radar." Hand assured him.

"Good but he won't make it easy. He clearly has access to information he shouldn't have. Raina knew things about me, personal things and I want to know how."

"My men and I are taking her straight to headquarters for questioning. We'll be in touch." Hand said to him.

"Agent Hand. Thank you, for everything." Coulson shook her hand.

"Good to have you back. Honestly, this bus isn't really my style." She remarked before leaving the BUS. Once they saw her leave the Team walked over to him, all of them had smiles on their faces.

"I just want to say thank you. You all stepped up and I'm proud of you. Well done. Will thought so too. Speaking of which, you are all now part of a select group that has knowledge of very sensitive and highly classified information regarding him and his business. Information that only Director Fury and a very select few are authorized to know so I don't need to tell you that it must remain a secret." Coulson told them, and they all nodded. "Now get back to work."

They smiled and proceeded to go their separate ways one by one until it was just Coulson and Skye. "I heard Agent Hand tried to throw you off the plane?" He said to her.

"That she did but the others vouched for me." She replied.

"Good work, Skye. Good enough that I think it's time we remove this." Coulson held up her right hand that had the tracking bracelet. "Disengage bracelet."

The bracelet beeped before it unlocked, and he removed it. "Are you kidding me?"

"Thought you'd like that." Coulson smirked.

"So, how are you, Coulson? Really?" She asked.

"I'm fine but I appreciate your concern. If you'll excuse me, I need to speak with Will." Coulson told her before heading to the stairs.

"You mean the secret Avenger we've had here with us the entire time?" She asked and saw him turn to look at her. "You knew all along?"

"I told you. I recruited him to SHIELD years ago." Coulson reminded her.

"Guess it must help to have a superhero as your best friend." Skye remarked.

"It has its benefits." Coulson admitted as he walked away.

"You think he can get me an autograph from Thor?!" She called out but Coulson didn't answer. He did smirk though. He made his way through the BUS until he arrived in his office where he saw Will setting up two chairs facing one another. Coulson walked over and pressed a few buttons to silence the room and make sure they were not disturbed, and no one could eavesdrop.

"We don't have to do this right now if you want. Give it a day to let you rest." Will offered. "The information isn't going anywhere."

"No. I want to know now before Fury stops you." Coulson said and Will nodded so he took a seat and gestured to him to sit in the chair. Coulson did as Will took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Now this will feel a little jarring but don't worry. That's normal, I think and if you feel some bleeding from the ears than I can't help that."

"Not exactly instilling me with a lot of confidence." Coulson told him and saw Will open one eye.

"That was a joke. I've done this with Dr. Banner many times to help him with Hulk so don't worry." Will closed his eye again. "Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and calm your mind."

Coulson did as Will said, though it took a few seconds with all the feelings and thoughts he had going through his head. Will opened his eyes, which were glowing blue as he quickly established a mental link with Coulson before he began the mind melding.

Coulson felt a rush of movement like he was suddenly thrust forward and found himself inside a massive circular room. On the walls were rows and columns of monitors that were playing out various moments, some of which he had no context for, but he recognized a few. He saw the moment he met Will in the diner in Atlantic City when he and Fury went to meet him for the first time, and he saw moments from the Battle of New York.

"Welcome, Neo…" Coulson heard and saw a single egg-shaped chair which turned around to reveal Will wearing his Aegis gear with his hood down and mask not on. "Sorry, couldn't help myself."

"What is this place?" Coulson asked.

"Not entirely sure on the specifics but it's basically a mental construct for memories. We're in my head at the moment." He explained as Coulson walked around and began to see why this place looked so familiar.

"The Matrix?" Coulson guessed and got a nod in response.

"Just helps to keep things organized. Come on, here's the memory." Will snapped his fingers and all the monitors went black before they turned back on, so it was one giant wall monitor. It played out the memory of Will meeting Coulson again after the mutant incident at the Vault and he was promoted to Level-8.

What the hell is going on?" Will asked Fury, visibly and emotionally upset at what was going on.

"A lot, Mr. Detmer." Fury walked over to a wall and removed a picture frame where a safe was hidden. After inputting a code, scanning his thumbprint and his retinal scan the safe was unlocked and Fury retrieved what looked like a portable DVD player and a disk. "What I'm about to show you is a level-10 classified file. You will not repeat what you see or hear to anyone ever again and the only reason I'm showing you this is because I have no other choice."

Fury inserted the disk and turned the player around. It read, Classified Level 10 communication. T.A.H.I.T.I. Project Supervisor to Director Fury Final Report. Fury hit the play button and Coulson's face appeared on a video briefing. "Good morning, Director Fury. I regret to inform you that I'm handing in my resignation. I know you brought me on to Project T.A.H.I.T.I because you trusted my judgment, and it's that judgment that's telling me I can no longer in good conscience let the testing continue. I understand you started the program to potentially save a mortally wounded Avenger, but the side effects are too extreme. We had initial success with the regenerative properties of the Guest-Host tissue, but after the initial physical recovery, the subjects began to deteriorate mentally, displaying hypergraphia, aphasia, catatonia, or just complete psychosis. We don't know if it was the biology at play or simply the awareness of what was done, but the only course of action that showed any promise of stemming these side effects was memory replacement—erasing completely the awareness of what they'd been through. And even those results were very inconsistent. To be clear, I'm recommending the termination of Project T.A.H.I.T.I. Under no circumstances should these procedures or drugs be administered to anyone ever. The cost is far too great. Thank you, sir."

The video ended after that with the disc and video player short-circuiting and smoke coming from the crevices, indicating that both the disc and player were destroyed. Most likely as a failsafe. Hearing all of that, Will wasn't sure what to make of it but he quickly figured out what Fury did and why he showed it to him. "What did you do, Director?" Will asked him.

"What I felt was necessary and I'm damn glad I did it too." Fury replied. "You know Coulson as good as anyone else, Will, and you know he's a true believer in what SHIELD stands for. And like you, he's the heart of SHIELD. So, I did everything I could to bring him back."

"You used this Project T.A.H.I.T.I. to bring Coulson back even though he told you about the risks." Will stated. "And he doesn't know anything. You wiped his mind. How could you do that?!"

Fury sat in his chair and while his face was stoic as per usual, his demeanor did shift to show that the knowledge of what he did impacted him. "The trauma that Coulson endured during the procedure was…immense. Memory replacement was the only course to help bring Coulson back to the man he once was so that's what I had done. A memory of a beautiful island and a vacation while we erased everything about Project T.A.H.I.T.I. Coulson doesn't know anything about it."

"This is so messed up." Will held onto the desk to steady himself and took a deep breath. "Why tell me any of this?"

"Because I knew that the second you were alone with Coulson, you'd go into his mind to figure out what happened, and you'd figure out what I had done. So, I decided to go about this another way." Fury told him only for Will to look at him.

"And what's to stop me from going to Coulson right now and telling him the truth? Better yet, showing him."

"You know the human brain better than anyone, Agent Detmer. You can repair it and you can break it. What would telling Coulson the truth risk?" Fury asked him. Will looked at Fury and took a deep breath before answering.

"A possible complete mental breakdown."

"And the side effects of Project T.A.H.I.T.I. I know you don't approve of what I did Agent Detmer, but I stand by my decision." Fury assured him. "That being said, there's a reason I told you the truth. You know Coulson better than most people here at SHIELD. I want you to watch over him for any signs of deterioration and be there for him. Help him only like you can and make sure that Coulson is Coulson. I trust in what Project T.A.H.I.T.I was able to do, and I know Coulson is strong but I'm not naïve to think he won't find out the truth. When that happens, help him."

"Sir, you're asking me to not only lie but spy on someone I consider practically family." Will said, his voice breaking to show how devastated he was being asked to do this. "Sir, I can handle an assassination mission, going undercover, or throwing me behind enemy lines to take down a dictatorship gone rogue. Hell, the next time an alien species tries to invade Earth I will be on the front lines to throw them back but please don't ask me to do this."

"I'm sorry, Agent Detmer but we both know that you are the best person suited to making sure Coulson stays safe. You know him better than most people, you trained with him, he trusts you and your telepathy will be able to help you should the worst come to fruition. I'm ordering you to watch over him and unless Coulson shows signs or figures out the truth himself, you are not to repeat a word of this conversation to anyone." Fury ordered.

Coulson could see from the memory that Will was really struggling with this order he was being given. Being asked to lie to someone you consider family was not something he wanted to do but Fury put him into an impossible situation. He had no choice. He watched as Will finally agreed to the mission.

"Yes, sir but constantly watching him is going to draw attention."

"Coulson has requisitioned a mobile command unit and will be putting together a team. Having another Level-8 agent assigned to him will draw up some red flags, yes so, I've already planned to have someone else watching him 24/7 when you can't. You will not know who this agent is, but they know Coulson as well as you do and want what's best for him. You have my assurance on that. If your recalled for another mission or something comes up, they'll be able to monitor him while you're busy but other than that, you are to watch over him. Am I clear?" Fury asked and Will nodded in response. "I know I'm asking a lot of you, Agent Detmer, but I wouldn't ask you to do this unless I was sure you could handle it and if I didn't believe in what you were doing. He's still the same Coulson you know from before…just act like nothing's changed."

"Hopefully, my training's made me a convincing liar." He muttered as he walked over to the door to leave but stopped. "Director Fury, one question and permission to speak freely sir?"

"What is it?" Fury asked him.

"Sir…I know I've only been here for three years. There are hundreds of agents who have seniority over me, and you've dedicated a good part of your life to SHIELD and I'm not doubting or contradicting your service or what you've done at all." Will assured him. "But wiping Coulson's memory and asking the people who care about him to lie to his face? At what point is there no longer a line to cross?"

Fury took a moment to process the question before standing up to look at the SHIELD logo behind his desk so Will couldn't see his face. "You draw the line wherever you need it, Agent Detmer. We get our hands dirty, and the rest of the world stays clean, that's our mission. At the end of the day…someone has to make the enemy scared of the dark."

"Roger that, sir." He replied, stepping out of Fury's office into the waiting area. Seeing it was just him, he took a moment to really let himself feel what had just happened. He punched three holes in the wall and picked up a nearby chair which he promptly smashed against the ground and broke into pieces. "FUCK!"

Will stood there after his little anger venting and felt a little better but that's it. He fixed his shirt and hair before walking out of the waiting area and into the hallway. Taking a deep breath to recompose himself, he walked down the hallway until he turned the corner where he saw Hill and Coulson talking while drinking coffee.

Will ended the memory play after that. He looked at Coulson and he could see him grappling with what he had just learned. Project Tahiti was his project and Fury used it on him even though he told him not to.

"Huh…" That was the only word Coulson could mutter. "Fury had someone…someone else watching me. It's May…"

"Yeah. I didn't know then, obviously because he never told me but after spending enough time and learning of the bond and history you two share it's the only option that makes sense. She's the only one who knew you before like I did." Will deduced.

"My memories…can you get them back?" Coulson asked him. Will thought for a second before he snapped his fingers, and the rows of monitors reappeared this time with Coulson's memories playing. Everything seemed to be fine but there was a section of monitors that appeared to be glitching. The monitors were playing back the memories from Tahiti, Coulson being on an island and relaxing, but they were stuttering, buffering, stopping, rewinding, and playing like there was something wrong. Now knowing that his memory was altered with it makes sense. "What's wrong?"

"They altered your memories but that's not an exact science. I guess, overtime the veneer put on has started to weaken. Some more than others. I could try and recover a few pieces now, and that might be ok." Will answered.

"Why just a few?" Coulson asked as Will thought up the best way to describe it.

"Your brain is like any kind of muscle. All of our experiences and memories are like working out that muscle. Over time it gets stronger and stronger, but a bad memory or traumatic event can cause it to tear. Eventually, that damage can be healed, and it'll scar over like anything else. That muscle could go back to being worked like before so it's like nothing happened but too much of the same trauma, especially all at once can cause more damage." Will explained.

"But sometimes reexperiencing that trauma can give you answers. Please, Will…I need to know." Coulson told him. Begrudgingly Will accepted that so he walked over and touched one monitor which turned the wall into one giant screen. The memory of Tahiti played again but it kept glitching out so Will touched the screen. His body began glowing blue indicating he was using his telepathy, more specifically his telepathic surgery ability to try and heal the damage to the memory. To try and restore it. It was an ability Will wasn't very versed in since he never really had to use it but working on just one memory in particular should be ok.

The Tahiti memory began to get warped as the cabana boy with the drinks faded away and was replaced with Doctor Streiten, the SHIELD doctor who gave Coulson the clean bill of health just before the team's first mission. His masseuse was replaced with Dr. Goodman. Coulson wasn't familiar with her but knew she worked at SHIELD.

"Listen to him!"

More of the Tahiti cabana began to warp until it was replaced with a dark room and the sun replaced with a bright overhead light. Everything then turned to black before small pieces began to play. Coulson's hand was covered in blood, Fury looked down at him, he saw an oxygen mask being placed on him and a green colored vial was removed from a special containment device. After that it was glimpsed of a medical lab, doctors, and medical tools.

"He's drifting…he's drifting…

A bright flash of light made things consolidate and Coulson could see the overhead light shining down on him.

"This is wrong!"

"Can you feel that?" The other doctor asked him.

"Don't! Stop!" Coulson begged.

"Listen to him! Who ordered this?!" Doctor Streiten questioned.

"Director Fury himself."

"This is wrong! Listen to him!"

Coulson then saw his reflection in the overhead light and what he saw was terrifying. He saw a machine messing with his brain.

"Let me die, please. Please! Please, I'm begging you, let me die! Please! Please let me die! Please! Please let me die! AHH!" Coulson began to relive that memory.

"COULSON!" Will grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out of the memory.

[GASPS OF SHOCK & HEAVY BREATHING]

Will and Coulson bounced back into their bodies, and it felt like they had been underwater for five minutes without water while getting thrashed around. Coulson fell to the floor on his knees, taking rapid heavy breaths like he couldn't breathe and Will grabbed his head in pain. Pulling out of a mental link like that was beyond a rush and hurt.

"Coulson…" Will grabbed the trashcan and put it in front of him, allowing Coulson to puke his guts out. "It's ok…it's over." He assured him while also calming down himself. The sight of that horrible operation almost made Will throw up as well.

Coulson coughed up a lung and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. He looked like he had the life drained out of him. While it was a memory, he had gone through that trauma again. "They…what…"

"Just breath, Coulson. It's over…" Will assured him. No words were said after that as he just gave Coulson a moment to catch his breath and think. He wasn't really sure what he could say. After about couple of minutes, Coulson got back up and looked at Will.

"Get your car. We're leaving." Coulson told him and Will didn't argue, following his lead.

Unknown house

Will sat in his Aston Martin parked outside a house in a suburban neighborhood. The house belonged to Dr. Streiten and Coulson was having words with him. Will just sat there and waited. While the Doctor had a hand in bringing Coulson back to life, Will would have no qualms with putting a bullet in his head. After about ten minutes, Coulson got back into the car.

"What do you want to do?" Will asked him.

"Just drive." Coulson told him so Will did. They were heading back to the BUS. "They messed with my head. How could they do that?"

"Sometimes forgetting a memory is the better option. No one wants to remember their worse parts of their past…but then that's not healing. Now that you know, you can really start." Will told him.

"How do you even begin to heal from that?" Coulson asked.

"Day by day…bit by bit…" Will answered. "They erased your memories and replaced them but that's it."

"How can you know, Will?"

"Because I know you, Coulson. About as good as anyone. One of the bravest, most loyal, and optimistic people in SHIELD I've ever met. Someone who really believes in what SHIELD stands for. What is that?" Will asked him and got a look. "What is the purpose of SHIELD?"

"Protection." Coulson answered.

"Guided by what fundamental belief?" Will asked him like Fury had done when he was made an agent.

"That people are worth protecting." Coulson replied.

"That never changed. You're still you. But what you have been through was traumatic and any kind of trauma leaves scars. But those scars make us stronger. Remind us of what we've been through and what we've overcome." Will told him and there was a moment of silence as those weighty words sank in.

"Will…thank you." Coulson said to him.

"Your welcome." Will replied when his phone buzzed with a message from Deputy Director Maria Hill.

Report to Triskelion. Fury's orders.

"Looks like the BUS is taking a detour."

"Good. We need to talk." Coulson said so Will sped up.

Suffice to say that when Coulson met with Fury, a lot of words would be shared.

End of Chapter 20

Happy near end of the year. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and are keeping ward. Hope you guys liked the chapter. Dealt with Episode 10 and 11 of Agents of SHIELD. Obviously with Will involved some things were changed but I think I made it work. I'll leave it for you guys to decide. Hope you enjoyed it. Obviously, with Will around I knew that he would not let Coulson get taken without a fight, so I worked around it along with the reveal of Tahiti. There are still some mysteries as Fury never told Will about Tahiti's GH serum host and Coulson doesn't know as those memories are still damaged and will need time to repair or resurface so still some mysteries for the two to discover but next chapter will have the kind of fallout of Fury's decision. Not only that but Will's identity has been revealed to the team so that'll be something they need to deal with. Another thing that has come to pass is that with Will around he prevented Mike's capture by Centipede so hurray for that. This changes a lot of things with the canon so look forward to how things will play out differently.

Next chapter, angry words and tensions come up as the secret of Coulson's resurrection is known to him, so Fury now has some explaining to do. Tahiti, the memory wiping, Will and May spying on him, Coulson's got a lot to say. And then the team deals with the revelation that Will has been an Avenger this whole time. Mind blown. After that they need to deal with a bad seed at SHIELD's science academy and get some answers for Skye regarding her adoption. And after that, Will drops by the Xavier Institute to chat and ends up helping Logan deal with some past trauma of his own. Until next time, everyone stay safe and stay warm. Happy Holidays.

Also, for those wondering Goose the Flerken is female, and I wasn't aware of that when I added her, so I kept referring it as he instead of she. Sorry but she's also an alien so oh well. And I know that things with the MCU haven't been great the past year. All I can say is that when I get to that point in my story, things aren't exactly going to be the same.

Updates for November: Just the Perfect One. Sorry but the holiday and new games release cut into my writing.

Updates for December: I will make it up to you guys for just one fic for November. Updates for December will be Mandalorian Maverick, which I'll try to get out by at least 12/15/2023. Also, will be updated is Blue Wolf and Spectacular Spider-man at the end of the month.

Again, thanks to War Sage, Masamune X23, JhotoLoraxius, Omni-Creator Kami of Anime and all the other people who PM me with ideas for my stories. Thank you, guys. They help a lot. Also, make sure to check my Deviantart every now and then for new pics I'll put up. I've made cover photos for just about all my stories, but I'll have more pics made so check them out.

William Alexander Detmer/Birthname: William Alexander Danvers

Born: September 8th, 1988-Currently 25

Moniker= Aegis (means something under protection from a benevolent source/Shield of Zeus and Athena)

Primagen Enhanced Inhuman

SHIELD Status: Level 8 Agent / Special Operations, Tactics and Defense Specialist (SOTD) Serial number: NE616IN

Member of the Avengers

Appearance: Stephen Amell from Arrow, Season 1 build.

Aegis Combat gear: Earth X's Dark Arrow Vibranium jacket and pants with retractable full-face mask colored Black and Blue. Eye covers in mask are colored blue as well. Improved design resists more damage and certain atmospheric pressures.

Shoulder strap pellet holders. Combat gloves and forearm guards with weapons and equipment.

SHIELD gear: Combat boots, black combat pants, with form fitting dark blue long sleeve athletic shirt. SHIELD Tactical combat vest.

Shoulder strap pellet holders. Combat gloves and forearm guards with weapons and equipment.

Casual Outfit: dark blue or black sneakers, jeans, blue or black t-shirt and either a zip-up hoodie, jacket, or button up over.

Weapons:

Signature Guns:

Modified Heckler & Koch P30L handgun with custom grip and micro-dermal sensor to his palm print. Improved barrel for accuracy and damage output. Added compensator or suppressor attachment. Spare firearm Glock 17.

Modified Knight's Armament SR-25 Sniper rifle with modified scope, bipod, and suppressor.

Modified M249 Mk46 Light Machine gun with a modified barrel, magazine insertion well. Equipped with adjustable buttstock, 100-round magazine drum, deployable bipod, red dot sight, flashlight, and laser sight attachment.

Modified TDI/KRISS Vector-.45 ACP with modified barrel, stock, grip, extended magazine, red-dot sight, flashlight, laser sight, and silencer attachment.

Modified Remington 879 MSC Masterkey 12-gauge compact shotgun.

Custom collapsible Oneida Kestrel Compound Bow and quiver of special arrows.

Milkor 40mm Grenade Launcher.

Others:

Right forearm guard wrist mounted retractable Vibranium/alloy blades.

Left forearm guard wrist mounted small retractable Vibranium Shield & touchpad computer.

10 dark blue flechettes/throwing arrows wrapped around his ankles.

2 Vibranium orbs that Will is able to manipulate.

Natural Language Modified Artificial Intelligence program EDI.

Predator Combi stick/spear

2 Predator Shuriken

4 Laser net devices

Predator knife

Microtech Combat Troodon OTF knife

Personal Vehicles: Red and Black 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS (At home in Jersey City), Red and Black 1970 Harley Davidson Titan V-Rod motorcycle, Specially modified 2012 Aston Martin DBS V-12 spy car, SHIELD Quinjet for transport

Notable talents: Genius level intellect potential, self-defense military training from Harold Detmer, knowledge, and training in 15 types of martial arts, gun knowledge and expert marksman trained by Clint Barton, espionage and spy skills trained by Natasha Romanoff, SHIELD tactics and medical training from Coulson and SHIELD trainers, well-crafted knowledge and understanding of psychology, knowledge, and experience with engineering both mechanical and electrical, fluent in dozens of languages, trained pilot.

Personality: Kind, caring, composed, attentive, intelligent, and driven. Can be a bit of a smartass.

When insulted, angered, or in a serious situation, focused and relentless. Considered dangerous and unforgiving in these types of situations.

Uses powers sparingly in the field unless absolutely needs to.

Pairing: Will x Skye/Daisy Johnson x Crystal

Powers:

Rakyat Tatau: Mystical tattoo that enhances speed, strength, stamina, intelligence, instincts, healing speed ad metabolic function to absolute human peak potential. (Captain America Level Super Soldier)

Telekinesis: the ability to impact objects through the direct influence of mental power or other non-physical means

Power Level=Advanced: level 4 out of 5

Binding-to keep an object/being from moving

Levitation-to lift an object

Orbital Field-to makes objects and energy orbit around user

Telekinetic Shield-to create a shield of telekinetic energy around user or others/strength of shield depends on mental strength and focus of user

Psionic Speed-to augment user's physical speed

Psionic Strength-to augment user's physical strength

Telekinetic Bullet Projection-projecting telekinetic energy as bullets

Telekinetic Choking-to strangle someone with telekinesis

Telekinetic Grip-To grasp an object firmly in place

Telekinetic Maneuver-to alter an object's directional course

Telekinetic Pull & Push-to pull or push objects away from user

Telekinetic Aura/Sense-To sense one's surroundings with telekinesis

Telekinetic Compression-to crush or compact an object

Telekinetic Blast-to emit telekinetic energy as a blast of blue energy

Telekinetic Destruction-to make an object explode into dust

Telekinetic Flight-using telekinesis to fly

Psionic Explosion-to create/discharge psychic energy across a wide range

Telepathy: mentally receive or transmit information

Power Level=Advanced: level 4 out of 5

Mind Reading-ability to read the thoughts of others

Memory Reading-the ability to read the target's memories

Psychic Communication-the ability to secretly converse with others

Telepathic Speaking-to speak aloud using the mind

Telepathic Projection-to project images or memories into the physical plane

Download-the ability to process/download information of another person (If used in a violent or angry mood, can harm the victim)

Knowledge Replication-the ability to replicate learned knowledge and skills

Knowledge Projection-the ability to project knowledge to another

Rapid brain activity-the ability to process and understand information at incredible rates

Mental Inducement-The ability to put the targets mind into the wanted state

Mental Hallucination-the ability to cause mental hallucinations

Mind Link-the ability to develop a permanent mental bond with any person

Mind Walking/Melding-to enter another's consciousness

Precognition awareness-six sense awareness of imminent danger

Telepathic Prediction-the ability to know a person's moves by reading their brain waves

Astral Projection-to separate one's mind from their body and explore physical and extra-physical plane

If separated from body too long, very dangerous. Capable of killing spirits, demons, and other supernatural souls.

Telepathic Surgery-the ability to perform neuropsychic surgery, healing and/or damaging the mind

Memory/Mental Manipulation-the ability to manipulate a target's memories and mind

Clairvoyance-the ability to gain direct visual information through non-physical means

Triggered only by serious events

Foresight-the ability to foresee possible future events and observe what may happen

Needs certain triggers to activate

Powers Gained from Exposure to the Aether

Invisibility-Can use his telekinesis to fold the light around his body or an object to make him or anything invisible to sight. Requires a great deal of concentration.

Healing-Can use his telekinesis to move parts of the human body around at the molecular or atomic level to heal. Requires a great deal of concentration.

Molecular Manipulation Power Boost: Can use his telekinesis to adjust the molecules in an object to turn it into something else so long as he understands the objects chemical structure and makeup. I.e., turning gas into water or turning gravel into iron. Can accelerate, slow down and adjust spacing of molecules. Requires a great deal of concentration to master. Has sub powers.

Fire manipulation-Can use his telekinesis to ignite the elements in the air by creating friction at a molecular level at will to make fire.

Ice/Water manipulation-Can use his telekinesis to slow down or stop all the molecules around an area from moving, thus creating ice and freezing anything he stops from moving. Can turn ice into water or steam by manipulating the speed of the molecules and control the element with his telekinesis.

Wind manipulation-Can use his telekinesis to move the oxygen/nitrogen molecules around him in the atmosphere to manipulate air/wind.

Earth manipulation-Can use his telekinesis to manipulate the molecules of earth or earthen elements including most solid objects, specifically all minerals and mineral compositions regardless of their state.

Plasma/Lightning manipulation-Can use telekinesis to manipulate highly ionized gas molecules in the air to build up a static charge and then discharge it as a form of ionized Plasma/lightning. Plasma/Lightning is colored blue.

Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of SHIELD or any Marvel Properties, they belong to their respective owners, I'm just a fan.