Birds of a Feather | | Leo Fitz Book One

Chapter 62

Coulson gave Asia a clap on the shoulder when he saw her walk in wearing her new lanyard. "Perfect, Monroe. We need you to ready the plane for our next mission. You comfortable with that?"

"Always, sir," Asia replied with a smile. She left with a nod and made her way to the airplane. This mission seemed very personal to Coulson, but she was never one to press, she was only here to complete missions and mostly follow orders. Not every order. But, ya know, most of them.

Although, she couldn't help but wonder just what was going on between May and Coulson. Usually, almost always, it was May's job to pilot the aircraft. Clearly, Coulson still felt wary about May keeping secrets with Fury. Asia felt wary herself--for a moment, back before everything had happened, it had seemed that perhaps May knew she was keeping secrets herself, that she had been sending certain bits of intel to Strike Team Delta. But, if that were the case, she probably would have called her out by now. It wouldn't make sense for her to keep something that could get her back in Coulson's good graces a tight lipped secret.

So Asia would have to err on the side of caution for the time being, until things settled down. Until she could get a good, concrete grasp on what exactly was going on. After the plane was ready to go, gassed up, and loaded with the supplies she could only assume they would need, since Coulson hadn't exactly given her a packing list, she radioed the team. Leo, Jemma, Coulson, and Trip showed up, but there was no sign of the others.

I guess this is it, then, she thought to herself, as she and Trip sat in the cockpit and flew them quickly South West.

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When the team landed back at Providence, Asia felt slightly relieved. While the mission to save a famous musician, Audrey Nathan, from her enhanced stalker, hadn't been too terribly difficult, it had been much too personal for her liking. It turns out, the musician and Coulson used to be quite the item, before he was thought to be dead. They had saved her, of course, but watching Coulson suffer through being near someone he cared about very much, yet not able to show her he was there, it was excruciating.

But when they landed in the hangar, there was an immediate sense of dread. Because, inside that sealed hangar, was a big Bus-Shaped space, with no Bus sitting neatly in it. The plane was gone. Vanished.

"Where's our Bus?" Jemma asked, looking back at Agent Coulson.

"And our team..." Asia said, trailing off as her hand reflexively went to the gun on her belt. No one had been there to greet them, which seemed out of character so far from what she had seen of Koenig. And what of Skye and Ward? And May?

Coulson pressed his lips into a thin line, looking around the barren hangar. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I don't like the way this is going. Let's go inside an assess the surveillance footage. Or perhaps they're just all in there, waiting. Let's not jump to too high of conclusions, yet. Let's meet in Koenig's office in ten if there's no sign of them on the base."

Asia gave a quick nod before heading swiftly, and quietly inside. She slunk down the halls like a cat through the shadows, and gave two quiet knocks on Skye's door when she got to the bunk area. Nothing. Carefully, she pressed her ear to the cold metal of the door, but there was no sound of movement inside. She gently grabbed the handle and pushed the door open, sticking her head inside and whispering, "Skye?" but there was no response. The lights were off, the room was empty. Skye was nowhere to be found.

Asia frowned. She had been hoping for a least a note left on the desk or something. This seemed very unlike her friend, unlike either Skye or Ward honestly. After doing a little more looking around, she wound up with the others in Koenig's large office. The lights in his room were on when they entered, but there was no sign of the man.