Beneath the Surface

Who I Really Am

"Are you positive it's them" Reid asked Amanda in her hotel room, she was rooming with Garcia but she was talking with Kate and JJ in their room. 

 "Who else would use Soviet slugs with no riffling besides us" Amanda huffed annoyed crossing her arms over her chest 

 "Umm..." Reid bit his lip trying to think 

 "No one thats it Sparky they know the both of us especially me, and if they recognize one of use our covers blown and we're through and possibly dead" Amanda balled her left fist and hit the metal table, leaving a dent in it, Reid raised an eyebrow in her direction his eyes shifting fro the dent to Amanda who rolled her eyes 

 "I understand, but I don't think they'll kill us we're the best in the business" He smirked a mischievous and deadly glint in his eyes  

"Damn right" She smiled 

"But if it's S.H.I.E.L.D. they'll know not to blow our cover" 

"Depends if they're newbies or not" Amanda groaned 

"I hate newbies" Reid matched her groan 

"Don't we both" 

"Definitely Arty" 

"Don't call me that" She narrowed her eyes, a purplish glint entering them 

"Then don't call me 'Sparky'" His eyes got a slight electrical spark to them. 

"Whatever lighting boy, now get out, I need a shower" She smirked pushing him out of the room. 

Amanda entered the bathroom on the hotel room, apprenticing the large size of the shower. She threw off her leather jacket and gloves, she was what you can call 'unique' jet black wings stretched from her back, a shinny silver coloured cybernetic bionic arm in place of her flesh left arm, scaring on her left shoulder from where it was fused to her body, and her naturally green and purple eyes completed her individuality.She turned on the water waiting for it to reach the right temperature. She stepped in relaxing as the warm water ran over her feathers and her body, doing what she needed to do in the shower plus a special shampoo for her feathers that she had actually bought from a pet store, her feathers could be more temperamental then her hair sometime. 

Garcia entered her and Amanda's room hearing the shower and making the obvious assumption that she was in the shower, getting changed while trying to figure out why the cell and wireless towers were out. 

Amanda stepped out of the shower flicking her wings trying to get as much water as possible off them, her feathers took hours to dry. She polished her metal arm rotating it to make sure it felt normal, well as normal as a metal arm fused to her body could feel. She threw on a pair of shorts and tank top, her bare arm and legs showing a collection of scars, she pulled a plate off the bottom wrist of her metal arm and started playing with the wiring of it, seeing the delay of response of the fingers on the hand. 

Garcia sat on the bed flipping through channels hearing that Amanda was out of the shower, hearing her exit the shower turning and letting out an audible gasp seeing that Amanda had wings and sparks were coming from the wrist of what seemed to be a metal arm, Amanda's head shot up her green and purple eyes widening and her face draining of colour she gulped in slight fear, 

"Hi" she stammered, Garcia being as straight forward as she usually is was very blunt with her question 

"What are you?" She asked 

"Human" Amanda offered, slightly offended by the question 

"But you have wings and your arm" Garcia's eyes were still wide Amanda sighed, fitting the plate back into place on her wrist and manipulating the fingers making sure they respond well, which they did 

"I'll tell you the whole story if you swear not to tell anyone" She said looking Garcia in the eye who nodded in stunned silence 

"First off, I'm not Amanda Stride, that's just a cover my real name is Artemis Rider, and I'm a mutant" 

"So you're not human" Garcia questioned 

"I am, my genetics are just different, mutants have advanced X genes which gives us our 'powers' I was born with my wings and my eyes other powers I developed over time" 

"You have more?" Garcia was trying to process the information she was given 

"Yeah" Artemis played with her hands, 

My gene if overexploited so I have more powers than any other mutant in the world at least that I know of" She gave a small smile, but was inwardly cursing herself for being so stupid and letting her cover be blown so easily 

"And your arm?" Garcia asked 

"I lost my real one in an explosion years ago, I had this one fused to my body in place so I can still do my job" Artemis changed the story of how she really got the cybernetic arm attached to her body. 

"And your real job is" Garcia asked wanting to know the real nature of Artemis' employment 

"S.H.I.E.L.D." Artemis gave her a sly smile having known that Garcia knew about S.H.I.E.L.D. because of Derek's involvement with the organization she was employed by 

"So you know him" Garcia asked referring to her husband 

"Yeah, I'm an Avenger but I haven't personally met him, he's still not a fan of full time S.H.I.E.L.D. employees" She shrugged 

"Well they did keep him from contacting me for 2 months" Garcia said hardly 

"It was for yours and Talia's safety, trust me being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent can be deadly" 

"Is that how you lost your arm?" Garcia asked 

"Yeah, but I'd rather not talk about it" Artemis cringed at the memory of getting her bionic arm 

"Okay" Garcia shot a smile in her direction 

"Thanks" She smiled 

"What's your field in S.H.I.E.L.D." Garcia asked, "And why are you here?" 

"I'm here as a spy, we got word of corruption at the Bureau years ago, we sent an agent in then but it's taken them longer than we expected so I came in to help get them back to the carrier and their family, but my specialty isn't spying and neither is the other agent's" Artemis smiled knowing she could trust Penelope with the information 

"What's your speciality?" Penelope asked 

"You might not like it" Artemis told her, "But I specialize in assassination" She gave her a small smile 

"You're an assassin?" Garcia said surprised 

"One of the deadliest in the world" Artemis smirked her eyes glinting dangerously, lifting up her pillow to reveal a combat knife under it, "I'm never unarmed" 

"So you know Black Widow and Hawkeye" Garcia asked having met the 2 assassins when she was allowed to visit her husband on the helicarrier. 

"They're my best friends" Artemis smiled having know the Russian assassin and her partner for years. 

"Really, they seem so uptight" Garcia mused 

"They aren't when you get to know them" Artemis smiled, 

"We should get some sleep for tomorrow" 

"Yeah" Garcia said, "So I have to call you Amanda Stride" 

"Yes, or else my cover may be blown and then the entire team could be in danger" Artemis told her. 

"Okay then, good night Amanda" Garcia smiled 

"Night Penelope" Artemis smiled heading to her bed.