Birds of a Feather | | Leo Fitz Book One

Chapter 23

"That, Asia, was bloody brilliant," Leo congratulated her once she returned to the Lab, pulling her into a hug. Jemma clapped her hands happily.

Asia shrugged, "Just doing my job, like anyone would. Plus, I like it when Ward asks me to do things."

"This intel should help us so much," Jemma said in a cheery tone, "If Skye doesn't find out where he is being held momentarily, we should know soon enough."

Asia nodded, agreeing. "You're right. I just wouldn't want to be in Ward's shoes right now. Hand is about to give him his ass on a platter." They had gone against direct orders, but they had gotten important information. Information that may have taken hours, days even, for the HQ interrogator to find out.

As if he had heard them speaking, Ward entered the room moment after Asia had said his name. "Monroe, your work paid off. And oddly....Hand is pleased," he said with a grin, holding up a hand for her to highfive.

"Dream Team is back at it again," Asia said with a whoop, jumping up and giving him a loud highfive.

"Dream Team?" Jemma asked, "Whatever do you mean by that?"

Ward chuckled, looking down at Asia. "Oh nothing, just something we used to do back in Ops training."

Asia smiled, "Yea, once we got over our whole number one and number two in our class rivalry, we started teaming up. I gave us the name Dream Team, but Ward went along with it much more than I expected."

From the side, Leo rolled his eyes. It wasn't that he was jealous, but perhaps he wasn't the biggest fan of how close Ward was to his newfound best friend.

"So now what?" Jemma asked, still working on bullets for the new Night Night guns.

"Now? We wait," Ward said with a curt nod.

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They were in the Lab later that day when they got the call. The phone buzzed and Asia knew, she just knew, it was Skye. It happened while they were learning about the new tech Jemma and Leo had built for them to use against the enhanced soldiers. The phone buzzed in Jemma's pocket and they all fell silent.

"Hello?" Jemma said, her voice shaking, as well as her hands which held the phone. Lord, someone had to teach that girl to tell a lie without shaking. Agent May looked over her and then at the other SHIELD agents in the room, the ones that weren't a part of their team."Well hello...Dr. Nugent." Jemma continued, blatantly obvious.

"Everybody out!" May ordered suddenly, pointing at the other agents. Once they cleared, just Ward, Leo, Jemma, May, and Asia remained. May grabbed the phone out of Jemma's hand. "Skye? What have you found?"

The news was best they had received in a long time, now they just had to convince Hand to believe them.

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Inside the cargo hold, they met up with Hand. "It's not just a hunch," Asia protested. Hand stopped walking and turned to face the group of them, placing her hands on her hips, waiting for one to speak further.

"Skye followed the money from Vanchat back to Centipede," Leo explained, standing next to Asia defensively.

"Turns out they recently purchased a small development less than 100 miles from here," Jemma added.

"Less than 100 miles. 100. Why not go check it out?" Asia protested. Skye was right, she could feel it.

"Well that's great news for their real-estate portfolio, but we have confirmed activity at the lab. I'm taking a strike team to investigate. End of story," Hand said flatly. She was such a nuisance, with her badly done red streaks in her hair.

"So we split up." May interjected. "You take the strike team and go after Centipede. We'll investigate Skye's lead, see if Coulson's there." She raised her eyebrows, challenging Hand, waiting to see how she would react.

For such an apparently good agent, Hand was unable to mask her surprise. "You backed my decision to kick Skye off the plane."

"Seems like it worked out," May replied flatly, the rarest hint of a smile on her thin lips.

"Seems like you played me," Hand replied, sounding insulted. Good. She should be, Asia thought.

"Look , this isn't personal, but I am taking my team and we're gonna find Coulson," Ward said, one hand resting on his gun as if it were a threat. Bad decision, but nothing Asia could do about it.

My team? Leo thought with a scoff. This wasn't Ward's team. They were all a member of Coulson's. But he didn't say a word.

May shot Ward a look, telling him to watch it. "Send back up if you want," Ward continued, "But we're going to get Coulson." He opened the door the an all black SUV and eyed the others. In rapid succession, they all clambered into the car.

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The town they arrived at was creepy to say the least. There were mannequins everywhere, painted with faces and hair, wearing dusty clothes. The whole place was dusty, dirty, blowing scraps in the wind. The building were rampshackle and tired, barely holding together. And that was where the fight began. And where they met up with Skye. Asia gritted her teeth, shoving the soldier off of her. Thank goodness Ward had taken the super solider, he was the one with the fancy bracelet Jemma and Leo had designed. The solider grabbed her from behind, and Asia grabbed his forearm, using momentum to flip him over her and onto the ground, icing him quickly.

She ran for the building which Skye and May had gone into.

"Let me die. Let me die." Coulson was screaming from inside an odd contraption that shined a pale blue light upon his face. It looked like half of a cryogenic tube. Raina's body lay on the floor, unconscious. Skye was standing over Coulson, terrified.

Asia inhaled sharply. He looked bad. May yanked the cord powering the device. Coulson's body was still shaking, muttering, unresponsive. Skye was sobbing now, leaning over him, when suddenly he began to speak once more. "Skye? Skye?"

"Coulson, it's me," she whispered, grabbing onto his hand.

"Oh God he's alive," Asia breathed, sliding down the wall till she was on the floor, head in her hands. Now, finally, everything was going to be okay.