Birds of a Feather | | Leo Fitz Book One

Chapter 28

The damage to Leo's face was slight, but nonetheless, he held a cooled rag to his face over where he had been hit. Asia, Jemma, and Skye walked up the ramp to the Bus with him, the three very concerned. It was rather unusual to have three women dotting over him to closely, not that he was about to object.

"How could I have been so stupid?" He muttered for the fifth time, shaking his head.

"Leo, stop," Asia said, pressing her lips into a thin little line. "There was nothing you could have done." Leo couldn't help but think that if it were Asia or Ward in his place, that something could have been done, that they could have been stopped.

From within the Lab, Coulson and May came walking out, finally returned, and walked over to the group. "I'm sorry sir, it's my fault," Leo said immediately, earning him a sharp look from Asia.

Instead of acknowledging Fitz' words, Coulson simply asked, "Any word on the missing cadets?"

"Ward's coordinating the search with Agent Weaver. They've set up a perimeter and are going building to building," Skye replied quickly. "They won't get far."

"Where did you guys go?" Jemma asked, "We've been trying to reach you." There was a slight hint of annoyance in her voice, which was understandable. There was only so much they could do without their direct supervisor and team leader there. They only had so much clearance.

Coulson flicked his eyes over to the young scientist. "Not now." He looked back to the rest of the group. "How dangerous are these two?"

"Extremely dangerous," Asia replied, "This device they've created turns any moisture around it to ice very rapidly at a great range. It will be more catastrophic than any of the tests they ran before. Those were only small scale." She pulled out a tablet, tapping it a few times, until an image of the device and an approximate range appeared, and she handed it to Coulson.

"Donnie's a good kid," Leo interjected. "He just felt isolated, alone. Seth must have befriended him to manipulate him, using him to finish the – the product." He stuttered at the last words, struggling to believe someone who believed in science as deeply as he would sell off his soul to the highest bidder.

"Product?" May asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She felt foolish for abandoning these kids like the had. That's all they really were, kids.

Leo squeezed his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay, I think they have a backer. He didn't announce it to me, but there were signs. The device, the components are incredibly rare and expensive. Nothing either of them could find on the open market themselves."

"If the parts are rare..." Asia began to say, when Skye finished her sentence for her: "We could track the purchases." The two girls looked at each other with matching grins.

"Sometimes it's not a bad seed, just a bad influence," Coulson affirmed with a nod. "Let's go." He turned and headed back towards the Lab. The rest followed suit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A bit later, the team, minus Ward who was still back at the school, gathered around Skye's monitor. "If we're talking about bad influences, this one is the worst," she muttered, running her fingers over the keyboard at the same speed at which Asia could build up a gun.

"Ian Quinn?" Coulson scoffed, "You've got to be kidding me...." Unfortunately, Skye was in no way kidding.

"He's buying their technology," she continued.

"What a fucking sleaze," Asia muttered angrily, clenching her fists tightly into little balls.

"The cadets have no idea he's a criminal," Jemma muttered, "To them, he's just a venture capitalist."