Magnificent Trio

Chapter 1

[Lutra's theme: Promises by Handsome Ghost]

  "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch it! That's the Night-Night Gun." Fitz rushed over to Simmons as she was picking up the mentioned weapon.

  "Well, it's on my stuff, and it doesn't work. And there's no way we're calling it the 'Night-Night Gun'." Simmons replied while picking up a suitcase.

  "The bullets work. Nonlethal, heavy stopping power, break up under the subcutaneous tissue-"

  "Oh, with a dose of only .1 microliters of dendrotoxin. I'm not Hermoine. I can't create instant paralysis with that." Simmons popped off, and the two of them began to talk at the same time, becoming nothing but jumbled noise.

  "Hey!" I rose my voice while carrying in a couple of boxes on my shoulders. "Now that I have your attention, where do I put these?"

  "Uh-"

  "Well-"

  "That one can go over there."

  "And that one can go over there." They each pointed in a direction, and I calmly nodded. Walking to a counter, I set one box down, then went toward the other side of the lab before something heavy being dropped at the door grabbed my attention.

  "Fitz-Simmons?" The man standing in the doorway asked as his face looked as if he was already done with being here.

  "Fitz." Simmons pointed at the man across the table from her.

  "Simmons." Fitz pointed to the woman across the table from him. "I'm engineering. She's biochem. And that's Otter. Er-"

  "Their name is Lutra, which is derived from Lutrinae, the subfamily of otters, or Lutra lutra which is the European or Eurasian otter." Simmons explained while putting away some manilla folders. "They're a Specialist."

  "Agent Ward?" Fitz looked at the man in the suit as I set the other box down, and Simmons began to unpack it.

  "Coulson said I'd need my comm receiver encoded." The taller male held up the little device before Fitz grabbed it and took it to his desk. "Don't know if you've worked with that model before. It's-" And he was cut off when the Scottish man brought a hammer down on the comm receiver. There was audible cracking and thuds as the agent in the suit just stood there, watching his device getting broken apart. "....brand new."

  "He'll repurpose the I.D.I.S. chip." Simmons explained.

  "Don't need the external receiver for the inner-ear comms anymore." Fitz stated as I went to bring in the cases of equipment still outside of the lab.

  "So, uh, how does it-"

  "Embedded sensorineural silicone matched to your DNA. It's very posh." The English woman cut the agent off by swabbing his cheek for a DNA sample. "So, are you excited to be coming on our journey into mystery?"

  "It's like Christmas." Ward flatly replied. "And I thought only one Specialist was needed." He rose a brow at me as I walked past with heavy-duty cases in my arms.

  "We're a package deal. We're the brains, Otter is the brawn." Fitz answered while picking apart the receiver.

  "Sci-Techs with an Operations?" There was a hint of disbelief in his voice.

  "It's not that hard to believe once you understand that we were all friends before graduating from the academy." Simmons stated before an engine roared as a bright red vehicle drove up the ramp.

  "One of Coulson's old S.H.I.E.L.D. collectibles. Flamethrowers, world's first GPS. He's mad for this crap." Fitz popped off.

  "Don't touch Lola." The older man that exited the car flatly looked at the hangar bay worker that then slowly backed off.