Colors ⇻ Darcy Lewis

chapter two

"Welcome to New Mexico, Colors," Clint said.

"Awesome," Esme grinned, "sniper duty, always good for the mind."

She raised her hands up to pull off her headset and put it on the console in front of her chair. The brunette grabbed her handgun and hooked it onto her belt. The brunette looked up when the ramp began lowering behind her, hefting her duffel bag onto her shoulder as she turned. Clint was walking out of the bird to where Agent Coulson was standing at the entrance of the makeshift facility, so Esme went to join them.

"Agents Barton, Taylor," Coulson nodded curtly, printing both agents to greet him as well, "We got the call about this morning. A group of locals had gathered to try lifting a hammer. When I got here they'd hooked it up to a pickup truck and the bed flew off."

"Weird," Esme commented, "So what are we doing about it?"

"We've got tech working on what it is and how to move it. Security making rounds at all hours," Coulson told them, "I want you doing security from the air Barton, Taylor, you're with me."

"See you later, Colors!" Barton waved as he walked back to the quinjet.

Coulson began walking to a jeep on the other side of the compound, the brunette jogging to catch up, "What're we doing?"

"One of the agents overheard a group talking about something falling out of the sky," the agent told her, "I had him follow them to where they work, and now we're going to meet him, and clear out all of the information that they have."

Esme wasn't the biggest fan of burn jobs, but it was SHIELD protocol, and was necessary for the investigation, "All right, let's get going," the agent opened driver's door of the jeep and jumped in, throwing the duffel into the back seat as she waited for Coulson to get in as well.

"Address?" she asked, signalling for two agents at the gate to open it so that she could drive out of the compound.

The brunette only half list ened as she pulled out onto the dirt road toward the city a few miles away. She continued to drive until she reached the address that Coulson told her to go to. She pulled into an empty parking spot at the back of the building and jumped out of the jeep.

"Do we have the keys or are we breaking in?"

"I prefer the term forceful entry," Coulson smiled a little, handing her a package of lock picking tools.

Esme scoffed playfully, taking a hold of the tools and getting to work on the lock, "Of course you do."

It took her a few minutes with a few unneeded comments from a level four agent, to which she responded, "I'm in operations, Perkins, they teach us how to pick locks."

The agent's jaw snapped shut and the brunette continued to work. Barely even a minute after the comments stopped, she heard the tell tale click of the lock.

Esme stood up, turning the handle and swinging the door open, "Now, we're in business."

"All right, I want everything that could have any possible importance," Coulson addressed the other agents, "If it's digital, you pick it up, if it has writing on it, it goes in the truck, and if its equipment don't even think about leaving it behind. Got it?"

A murmur of agreement went around the area, and agents started filing into the lab. At least twenty people were there, most of whom were teaming up to get the biggest of the equipment out first. Esme busied herself by filing away everything on one of the desks into a collapsible box that had been in the trunk of the jeep.

Twenty minutes later, and three boxes packed and in one of the trucks, the brunette was packing up the last of the journals in the filing cabinets. She placed the lid on top of the cardboard box and began carrying it out when she spotted a bright red iPod sitting on the cabinet that Perkins had been in charge of.

"Perkins!" She shouted across the room as she walked, waving the iPod in the air, her annoyance amplified by the stress that had started leaking through her soulbond a few minutes prior, "Digital means you pick it up!"

"See!" a woman exclaimed, causing the brunette's head to whip over to the three newcomers, "It's not just my stuff that they're taking, Darcy!"

Esme blinked, looking over at the other woman, then at the iPod that was still raised in the air, then back at the woman- Darcy- "Sorry. It's SHIELD protocol. I like the color, though."

Darcy's jaw dropped, seeming as if she was scrambling for words and not finding any. Esme frowned, hefting the box full of notes further up onto her hip.

"You'll get it back after we make sure that it doesn't have any information we need," the brunette reassured the other woman.

"...you like the color?"

And so it begins... both the insane amount of fluff writing (which is a lot harder than you'd probably think) and the ongoing annoyance of Perkins (which is easy and fun). And yes, I did reuse that gif from the cast and update info part. When I pictured this moment, that was her reaction, so that's why I used it. Anyway, I hope that you all have a wonderful day and I'll see you next Friday with chapter three.
~ Aria