Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD

Once they entered the hospital, John Daltry led them to the room they needed to head to, once he’d spoken to the doctors and orderly’s in charge. The psychiatric hospital as a whole looked relatively normal to Phil’s experience. A big part of his work in SHIELD had dealt with patients who might be enhanced, so he had been in a few hospitals like this. Some had been as close to a horror movie version of an insane asylum as you could get, others the sorts of super-advanced facilities that looked more like spaceships than hospitals.

This hospital was smack dab in the middle in terms of overall quality. Not horrible, and not great.

Coulson stopped his internal judgment of the hospital’s decor once they stopped in front of a door. Sheriff Daltry opened the door for them.

The second they entered, the person within turned to face them. Coulson looked her over.

She was taller than Skye or May, almost as tall as Daltry was. Her red hair was cut at her neck, and her eyes were a pale gray. Even in the dowdy grey gown that she was wearing, the facts remained. She was pretty.

Except for the left side of her face. A huge section of her face had been melted like acid had been poured over it, melting the skin from her forehead down to her chin into a mess of horrific-looking damage.

Skye and Coulson tried their best, but some measure of their horror must have shown on their faces. The woman winced, quickly pulling at her hair so that it covered half her face.

“Hey,” Daltry said softly, smiling at her. “It's good to see you walking around, darlin.”

The woman looked over at him. Her smile was beautiful. “It’s good to see you, John. Who are these people?”

“These folks are from BRIDGE,” the sheriff looked over at him. Which must have been why he missed the woman switching from a smile to a look of horror that she tried to hide. “They had a few questions for you.”

“Yes,” Coulson looked over at the sheriff. “Do you mind if we speak to her alone?”

Daltry stiffened, his eyes narrowing to give them a flinty glare. “Of course I do, damnit. She’s been through enough, I ain’t leaving her alone to get interrogated by you-”

“John,” the woman interrupted. “It’s okay… Just give us a minute, please,” she gave him an odd look, her lip quivering.

“I-” John looked at her, then at Skye and Coulson.

“We aren’t going to do anything to her,” Skye said softly. “But some of what she knows might be classified, so we have to talk alone. I promise she’ll be fine though.”

Coulson winced. They might well have to arrest this woman, so making promises like that was impulsive, to say the least.

Still, it seemed to do the trick. Sheriff Daltry clenched his fists, then unclenched them. “Yeah… Yeah, all right,” he looked at the woman. “But if anything happens, you call me, okay!?”

“I will,” she smiled at him. Could have been fake, but Coulson thought he could see genuine emotion behind it. “Thank you, John.”

The Sheriff nodded, giving a final look at Skye, Coulson, and the woman, before leaving. They could hear his heavy footsteps outside, loud enough that they could tell he’d stopped just a few feet from the door.

“...You know, there were only so many people that were listed among the SHIELD personnel on the base,” Skye said quietly. “And none was a redheaded woman.”

Coulson sighed. “But one of our scientists was dating one. One who had enough clearance to enter the base. Mrs. Barbara Sallis, formerly Bannister. When did you betray your boyfriend?”

The redheaded woman gave them a saddened look. “For six months, before the Triskelion incident… I suppose you want the full story?”

“As a start,” Coulson said. “It would go a long way to making amends, Mrs.Bannister?”

“I-” she hesitated. “Where do I start?”

“With your recruitment, I believe,” Coulson gestured to a chair, which she sat in with the finality of a woman on death row. “Tell us. How did it start?”

“...with Ted,” Barbara shook her head slowly, tears filling her right eye, the left scarred one still covered by her hair. “It wasn’t his fault. But it started with him.”

Coulson and Skye shared a look. Skye looked… reluctant. Coulson couldn’t blame her. This woman, vulnerable as she looked, could have been HYDRA. Like Garrett. Like Ward. Someone who had betrayed their friends and allies, for the sake of a fascist organization that went against everything they stood for.

After a quiet moment, Skye seemed to gird herself, stepping forward and grabbing a chair for herself. She sat down in front of the woman, placing her backpack on the ground next to her, and leaned forward. “Just tell us what you can. Please.”

Barbara looked at Skye. Her hair had fallen back, revealing her face in its entirety, the scars on her left side shiny in the sunlight, a combination of pale white and red masses of damaged skin. Skye looked her in the eyes, not flinching.

Coulson had to guess Skye’s ability not to be fazed after an initial look was due to her experience with far stranger looking things. Being friends with Dial, who had aliens ranging from undead Frankenstein monsters, giant bug-men, and mummy or giant eyeless dogs probably helped. But her compassion had to help as well.

Whatever the case, Coulson leaned back and listened as Barbara took a moment to think.

“...When Ted and I got together, he was… sweet. He cared about me. About people. He was kind and thoughtful. He was amazing.”

“And then that started to change,” Skye said softly.

“...Yeah,” Barbara shook her head. “Ted started to become obsessed. He kept staying up late, working on his serum. I didn’t worry about it too much, but then he started getting… distant. And I didn’t mind that too much, at first. I started hanging out in town. Finding my own ways to relax, to feel useful. And Ted was always there, even if he started ignoring me in favor of his research… My dad was that way, sometimes.

“And then, he just got worse and worse. He kept on staying out at the lab all night, finding reasons to avoid me. He was so focused on his work… You know, his wife, before we started dating. She tried to warn me about that.”

“Ellen Brandt?” Coulson asked. When Barbara nodded, he cocked his head to the side. “She was a member of AIM…”

“I remember,” Barbara said softly. “...I just wanted him back. Wanted him to stop ignoring me. And then, a man came to me.”

“From HYDRA?” Skye asked.

Barbara shook her head.

“AIM?” Coulson asked. After all, according to Dial, Ellen Brandt had betrayed Ted on behalf of AIM, maybe the same was happening here?

“No, no, he was,” Barbara sighed. “He was from Hammer Industries.”

“...That bootleg Stark wanna-be?” Skye asked, blinking.

Barbara winced. “Y-Yes.”

Coulson held in a rough chuckle. Hammer. Thank god he hadn’t let his preconceptions take over.

“He promised money,” Barbara said softly. “H-He said that if some other company beat SHIELD to the super-soldier serum… Ted wouldn’t need to work on it anymore. He could take some time off. Come back to me. I’d have the money to let us be alive. I don’t understand why I listened. At some point it was like… Like it was my idea,” she said softly, sounding lost and confused.

“The same reason why he went to you,” Coulson said softly. He walked forward and crouched next to Barbara. “Men like that, they are trained to prey on people. To use psychological cues to find things that will make you lean into their train of thought. They lead you into their flow, convincing you by making you convince yourself. He saw that you felt neglected. And he caught you before you could reach out to anyone else. Made it so that you weren’t able to think of any option except for himself. It’s insidious. It’s how spies have created spies for centuries,” Coulson looked over at Skye. “SHIELD mastered the technique. I’ve done my best to avoid doing it. But it’s worse than mind control, in some ways. Because it makes you feel responsible for it. And you end up blackmailing yourself. ‘I did this, so I have no choice but to keep going’.”

She didn’t say anything. Coulson didn’t expect her to. Barbara must have been alone for weeks at a time, thinking and rethinking all of her decisions. Trying to think about how she failed, how she could have done better.

Coulson had done the same thing after the Triskelion Incident. Looking back on his encounters with Ward, with Garrett, with other allies who turned out to be enemies. Thinking about the friends he had failed. The people he should have stopped. Everyone had regrets after all.

Barbara finally spoke. “I was supposed to collect the passwords Ted used. To send as much data as I could on what the lab had on the serum. I did that for weeks, getting paid for what I stole. I should have some money in a Cayman account actually,” Barbara shook her head with a sardonic smile. “I might have hundreds of thousands of dollars waiting for me. And I don’t care,” her lip quivered. “One day, I was visiting Ted. He ignored me, again. I collected some data on the serum, something about Abraham Erskine creating a diet and exercise routine that would lead to similar effects to the serum if done over a lifetime of rigorous routine.”

The way she said that, as though she was reading from a dictionary. How often had she gone over the events in her head?

“Then, early in the morning, Captain America came on the screens,” Barbara said softly. “And the Hercules app activated. Half the guards and some of the scientists were HYDRA. And then the shooting started.”

------

Melinda May/The Caval-Agent of Team SHIELD

When the elevators opened, the first thing Melinda noticed was the smell. The horrific scent of decay had already filled the inside of the elevator, but the actual lab was so much worse.

“Oh my god!” Melati reeled back, clutching at her nose. “Ugh! That smell, that taste!” she gagged, quickly reaching for her bag and pulling out a gas mask, pulling it on hurriedly.

“Is it really so strong?” Otto asked, not having nearly the same level of reaction.

“It is to me,” Melati said, coughing as she finished putting on the mask. “My senses are stronger than yours.”

May, in the meantime, stepped forward into the lab. She stared around at the area. “Not sure what I expected. But this is-” she paused. “Different.”

The lab was once a white pristine place. But now it was like stepping into a ruined jungle temple. The glass windows surrounding each separate section of the lab had been shattered. Concrete had been ripped through by vines as thick as May’s arms. The mold was growing across the floor, walls, and ceilings. There were bullet holes everywhere, smashed equipment, portions of the place had been blown apart by explosions, and dirt was tracked throughout the facility. It was as though the swamp and lab had melded together, all while a battle had taken place. Flies and other insects buzzed around the area.

The dead lay across the floor. Reduced to skeletons, they dotted the area around them. Many had vines wrapped around them. One had a small tree growing through it, separating the bones so that they hung off the branches like macabre Christmas decorations. The flies buzzed around the bodies, moving to surround May.

Otto stepped forward, waving his hands in a futile attempt to brush away the flies moving towards him as his face dripped sweat. “My god. There must be at least… thirteen bodies here?”

“It looks like-” May was cut off when Otto spun away, followed by the sound of his gagging, then the splash of liquid pouring out of his mouth.

“...That doesn’t help the smell,” Melati mumbled to herself.

“Hrrrrk!” Otto said in response. He stayed bent over like that, clutching at a wall with one hand. After a moment, he bent back up, still sweating, and pulled a wet wipe packet from his pocket, ripping it open with shaking fingers and wiping his lips. “I-I’m sorry,” Otto stuttered, stepping away from the pile of brown-green liquid and solid he’d made. “I’ve never really seen so much d-death.”

May didn’t respond. No reason to dig at him for a natural human response.

“It’s not that bad,” Melati grumbled, stepping forward to place her backpack on a relatively clean section of floor.

“...Yes, it is,” Otto took a deep breath, taking out a small baggie and tossing his wet wipe into it. “B-but there is something strange, I think. This amount of plant-life, in a lab that should be sterile. Bodies d-decayed to this extent,” he took another deep breath, hand still shaking. “Melati, you’re the expert in biology. Should these bodies be in such a condition?”

“Hmm,” Melati walked up to one of the bodies, leaning down to look at it. “No. If this lab was sterile, there shouldn’t have been enough bacteria to cause this. And the air is much too humid. It’s as if something pushed the swamp into the lab…”

She looked around. “I mean, there’s no accounting for what might have happened, but no laboratory worth their salt would have such an unclean facility that it would end up like this. Even the most destroyed labs don’t end up with levels of vegetation as this, not in mere months.”

May looked around at the lab. She tracked her eyes across the bullet holes, frowning. “Dr. Octavius. Can you try and pull up the footage from the labs’ cameras?”

“Yes,” Otto clenched his fist, the portly man gathering himself, and walked forward just a bit shakily, giving the bodies a bit of berth as he walked. “I’ll see what has remained.”

Otto walked towards the back, May keeping a close eye on him. As he pulled out a laptop and placed it on one of the more intact tables, Melati touched a hand to one of the plants. Her claws came just short of running across the vines, coming up to a flower. After a moment, she reached into a bag and pulled on a pair of specialized gloves.

“Strange… this plant does grow in swamps, but… not in the Florida Everglades,” Melati mumbled. She took out a knife and sliced off a piece of the plant, placing it in a baggie. “And this growth. It’s as though something here made the plants grow years faster in only a few months. I’ve seen some experimental fertilizer that causes growth like this.”

“Similar to Swampfire?” May asked, idly tracing her eyes across the marks of battle, noting the positions of the corpses. Something about them…

“Not even close,” Melati said with a smile at May before she turned back to study the flowers. “I still want to study that form, but this kind of growth is nowhere near that insane. It’s more like, extremely high-quality soil, the sorts of stuff I’ve only seen in labs, was spread all over the place. Hell, this might even be better than that…” Melati trailed off, taking a portion of the mud and debris spread across the ground in random sections to place in more baggies.

“These computers are destroyed,” Otto said, sounding frustrated. “I’ll have to take the hard drives to the truck if we want to recover anything.”

“You can’t just hack them here?” Melati asked.

Otto scoffed. “I am not ‘hacking’ them. Skye is the hacker. I’m simply attempting to recover the data… also, I already have SHIELD’s passwords for this data.”

He reached for several tools and worked at the computers for a while, finally pulling out two large blocks. Putting them into a container, he walked towards the elevator at a brisk pace.

“Get that done as soon as possible,” May said as Otto passed. He came to a stop and blinked, looking over at her.

“I will… but I sense some urgency in your tone that wasn’t there before. What is it?” Otto asked.

May didn’t mince words. “I’ve been marking the positions of the bodies, the direction of the bullet holes. There may have been a third force at play in this fight. Someone that made SHIELD and HYDRA stop fighting each other and start fighting them.”

“That is very… ominous,” Otto decided.

“It’s just a theory, which is why we need the footage now,” May said.

“I will recover it immediately then,” Otto rushed to the elevator, the doors closing behind him. For the next few moments, things were quiet, then Melati and May’s comms went online. “Okay, I am here. The hard drives will take a moment to boot up,” Otto said in their ears.

“Good,” May said. “Coulson, you read me?”

It was quiet for a moment before Coulson spoke. “Yeah. Just listening to a survivor,” Melati and May shared a look of surprise. “She’s telling her story. What do you have?”

“Possible footage of the incident,” May answered.

“Perfect. We can fact check her story,” Coulson said.

“You think she might be lying?” May asked.

“Let’s just say she might not be entirely trustworthy, to be kind about it,” Coulson said sarcastically.

“I have something,” Otto said, his voice sounding triumphant. After a moment, he began to narrate the footage, Coulson marking where the survivor's story linked up.

------

January 12, 2014, the day of the Battle of the Triskelion

Barbara Bannister

Within the lab under the Citrusville Swamp, Barbara stared at Steve Roger’s face on the screen as he spoke, her eyes wide in horror. At first, when Captain America had said SHIELD had been infiltrated, she had the crazy thought that he was talking about her. About her deal with Hammer. Then he began to talk about HYDRA.

That old Nazi group? That HYDRA?

It sounded unbelievable. She looked over at Ted, who was staring at the screens in shock. The scientists and guards around the lab stared at each other, suspicion in their eyes.

Barbara spoke as Captain America said something about an app. “Ted, is he-”

Suddenly, Ted’s phone vibrated, the sound somehow devastatingly loud. He looked at it.

His phone was shining bright green.

Other phones started to shine as well across the room. For a moment, as green light after green light shone, Barbara felt relief. Until red flashed. A loud sound came from out of nowhere. Barbara had no idea what had happened at first. Then another loud sound happened, red liquid splashing about. Some of it landed on Ted, who screamed in terror.

Barbara fell behind a desk. Her brain finally caught up for her to realize what the sounds that were echoing around them were gunshots.

She screamed, unable to help it when the sounds of glass breaking filled the air as well. Someone fell in front of her. A woman bleeding from her throat where she’d been shot. Jenny, a sweet lady who had always brought cookies in. Her phone was shining red. The HYDRA operative reached out towards Barbara, fear and pain in her eyes as she gaped at her. Her mouth let out a small gasp of noise, blood spilling from her to pour on the ground.

“Oh god,” Barbara whispered desperately. “Oh go-”

The table next to her exploded, sending her flying back. Barbara screamed again as she landed on the floor, her ears ringing, vision black. For a moment, she couldn’t comprehend anything. When her vision returned, it was cloudy. Someone reached down toward her, a hand grabbing her shoulder. She screamed as the hand pulled her up and dragged her away.

“Barbara, calm down!” the man pulling her yelled in her ear. “It’s me!”

Ted. Ted was the one pulling her. Barbara clutched at him. Ted had always been strong for a scientist, but today he lifted her into his arms with incredible ease, running out of the room as fast as he could. More bullets rang out around them until he had pulled her into a back room. She realized that he was bleeding. He was also carrying some sort of silver briefcase under his other arm. They staggered down the hallway, running towards a door in the back.

“W-Where are we going?” Barbara spat out in pain. She felt blood pouring down her legs. She couldn’t tell if it was hers or poor Jenny’s.

“The back,” Ted coughed, smoke in the air as he pulled her along. “We need to escape through the swamp!”

“Wha-”

He stopped at a door in the back of the facility, hurriedly slapping his hand against the panel on the side. For a heart-stopping moment, the doors stayed shut, bullets flying around. Someone screamed behind Barbara. She looked behind her, at the bodies of those she knew dying or killing.

The doors slid open.

------

May 18, 2014

Melinda May

The doors slid open. May entered through them, following the path Barbara and Ted had taken. “What is this place, Doctor?” she asked Octavius.

“Well according to the files of Project Gladiator, that was, uh, the name of this project, the project lead, Dr. Wilma Calvin, discovered that the Florida Everglades had several conditions ripe for materials that could be used to replicate the serum. That back room is a garden of sorts,” Otto said over the comms.

“I’ll say,” May said, staring with wide eyes at the sight before her.

The room was square, with glass cases all around, computers resting on the walls. In the center of the room was a pool of swamp water, apparently connected to the swamp outside.

Except every inch of the room was covered in plants. Even more thickly than in the other rooms. And almost all the plants were growing outward from the direction of the pool. It looked as though a garden from heaven had been grown in the center of the lab, flowers spread across the plants, some petals falling onto the pool.

Melati gasped as she entered after May. “God… this is just…”

Then she stopped speaking when she saw the bodies. Five spread out across the floor, three more slumped against the wall, all with plants growing over them.

“What happened here?” Melati said, looking around.

“I’m getting footage of the inside of that section,” Otto said. “I have the moment when Mrs. Bannister and Dr. Sallis entered.”

------

January 12, 2014, the day of the Battle of the Triskelion

Barbara stared at the lab around her until Ted finally pulled her in. “What is this place?”

“The garden,” Ted gasped, pulling her forward towards the pool. “The water opens out into the swamp, just a few feet,” he pulled her. “Just a few feet, Barbara. We can-”

Blood splashed Barbara’s face as a gunshot filled the air. Ted gasped. Suddenly, he wasn’t carrying her. Instead, the weight of the man came down on her. She stumbled, fell to her knees.

Ted stared at her. Her Ted, so big and strong, fell. His chest was red. That was strange, his shirt had been white. He looked so confused. Not cute confused, just as though he was… lost.

Then she realized what was happening. Ted landed in the pool, spraying water about as the briefcase in his hands fell open. Barbara heard a scream. Her throat felt raw and ripped when the scream kept getting louder. She reached out and grabbed at Ted, pulling at his lab coat. But he was sinking under the water.

“Ted!” Barbara tried to bring him close. He reached out for her. “Ted, please! Plea-” someone grabbed her from behind. “No!” Someone punched her in the face, sending her flying back. She barely got a glimpse of Ted finally sinking into the water. Pale blue chemicals soaked the water around him, the liquids coming from the briefcase he’d been carrying. Swamp water swirled over his lips as he gasped. The chemicals and swamp water filled his mouth. He looked so scared, as blood poured from his chest. Then he sank under the depths.

“No, no no no,” Barbara whimpered. Someone punched her again.

“Goddamn it!” One of the men said. She blearily looked around, the pain in her face nearly blinding her. Three men, all wearing heavy gear, were staring at the water. One turned from it to grab her, pulling her up. “We lost the samples!”

“We just need to take the base,” one of the other men growled. “We get the files, Dr. Calvin, we’re set.”

“What about her?” The man grabbing her smashed her in the back of the head with his fist.

“First, stop being a dick, Karl,” another of the men said as Barbara fell to the ground. “Second, we don’t need her. Kill her and be done with it.”

“Fine, fine,” Karl said. Barbara was pulled up, a pistol pressed to her forehead. “Ruin my-”

“Down!”

Five men rushed into the room, pointing guns at the men. “Down damn it!”

“Back off!” Karl manhandled Barbara, keeping the gun close to her. “Back off or she dies!”

“Damn it, Karl, I always knew you were an asshole!” one of the men shouted.

The men kept on shouting at each other. Barbara felt her arm get pulled back until it started to feel like it was breaking. She screamed.

The water from the pool exploded upwards. Everyone spun around, guns were raised.

They froze in fear at what they saw there. Rising from the pool, the being within screamed.

Barbara stared in horror. The creature was thrashing as it screamed, fingers clutching at the air. Liquid poured off of it. Its body looked… decayed. As though someone had taken a man, and poured acid over it. Ribs dripped swamp water into a cavity where the stomach should have been. Muscles, white and thick, ripped apart, melted, with a sick sucking sound. The smell of plants rotting, so familiar, seemed to fill the room with a physical presence. It looked like… like a dead man was rising from the swamp. The stuff of nightmares.

“...Te-” Barbara began to say.

“Open fire!” forgetting their fight, every soldier in the room started shooting. Bullets flew into the creature. They took chunks of it’s ribs out, tore into its head and teeth, sending bits of brain, muscle, and bone into the air.

The creature stopped screaming. It stopped thrashing. The mouth it once had faded slowly away, swamp water flowing across it, covering the thing in muck. It’s entire body was ripped apart. And still, it stood.

And before all of their eyes, as the bullets finally stopped and everyone began to reload, it started to move. At least, that’s what it looked like at first. Like it was standing up or bending. Until Barbara realized vines were moving up from the swamp water. Bones dissolved, replaced with thick green cords of plant matter. Muscle snapped, tore, stripped itself, as mulch and mud moved up to replace them. It grew and grew until the creature stood at it’s full height.

Someone screamed in fear. The creatures' eyes snapped open. Scarlet orbs burned in a green face, steaming in the light. It made no noise. Only stared. Then it moved forward with deceptive speed, grabbing one of the men by his face. The man struggled for long enough to fire his gun. Then he began to scream.

Steam rose from around the green fingers. Flesh bubbled and melted apart.

“AHHHHH! AHHH, AHHH!!!” the man squealed, babbling nonsensically. He grabbed at the creature, pulling and ripping at the plant monster, pieces of mulch and vines shredding apart. His fingers melted on contact with the creature, but he couldn’t stop touching it, trying to escape.

It didn’t matter. He continued to burn under the creatures' touch.

He died screaming. And as he did, the creature turned to the next person. The woman he grabbed desperately pulled out a knife and tried to slice it apart where it grabbed her arm. It didn’t care. This thing, this monster. It just lifted her and boiled her with it’s acid.

The soldiers tried to fight it. It didn’t matter. It swiped a man's head clean off his shoulders, boiled another’s face off and until the day she died, Barbara knew she’d remember the nightmare of a man’s screams gurgling as his throat melted to mush. Seven people, dead in moments. Karl pulled back from Barbara. His grip slid off of her. The creature walked toward them. Karl began to shoot him. The creature grabbed Karl and lifted him skyward. Then, it pulled back, before slamming the man against the wall. The wall stood strong. The man, on the other hand, broke with a sound that was a combination of a crunch and a wet squelch that she’d never get out of her head. Karl gasped. The moment his mouth opened, the creature pressed his other hand to it. Karl’s eyes widened. Muffled screams began, only to be replaced with the sound of hissing. Karl’s throat began to melt from the inside as Barbara realized acid had poured into his mouth. His legs twitched, piss and melted flesh pouring down them. Slowly, he died.

Then the creature turned to her. It let go of Karl, letting him fall, then stalked towards her. Barbara tried to crawl backward, but it was soon upon her. It placed a hand on her face.

The pain that followed… it felt like she was burning and freezing all at once. She cried in horror, trying to pull back. The creature stared into her eyes.

And suddenly she just… she stopped. She would never be able to explain it. But she wasn’t afraid anymore. Because one thought filled her then. Once she died. She’d be with Ted.

The creature’s eyes glowed scarlet. Green lids slowly fell. Until it’s eyes closed. And the pain stopped. Barbara gasped as relief suddenly flooded her mind. The creature leaned towards her, pressing his head to hers. The sensation of pain fading away made her cry. Then, suddenly, she was in water.

Barbara swam through filth for an unknown amount of time. Then, with a suddenness that shocked her, she was in the air again. In the swamp above the lab. She breathed in the swamp air for a long time, staring up at the sky.

------

May 18, 2014

Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD

Skye held onto Barbara’s hands. The redhead was shaking, her knuckles almost painfully tight on Skye’s hands.

“I was in the swamp for… I don’t know, a few hours?” Barbara shook her head. “John found me… I’ve been here since then.”

“How did you end up in the swamp in the first place?” Skye asked her. “You say you were in pain, then relief. Then you were just… in the water?”

Barbara nodded quietly. Octavius spoke over the comms. “The creature placed her in the water.”

“Say that again?” Coulson said, turning away from Barbara and Skye.

“The creature, this strange being, similar in make-up to Swampfire, really I hope we can find some genetic samples to compare the two and-”

“Doctor, please,” Coulson said. “Focus. What did the creature do?”

“Ah, apologies. The creature, rather than finishing the job and k-killing Mrs. Bannister,” Otto sounded horrified, stopping to take a shuddering breath. Coulson held back a bit of frustration at that. Octavius was probably shaken from the footage he’d seen. Seeing men and women boiled alive by a creature made of plants was probably horrifying, after all.

“He lifted her and pushed her into the water. With a surprising amount of gentleness. And then he left the room and…” Otto swallowed. “Well. The SHIELD and HYDRA agents went from fighting each other to trying to kill the creature. But it was simply unstoppable. The way the creature regenerated from attacks, killed the men… when it finished. It swam into the water-hole as well.”

“It went into the water?” May asked over the comms.

“Yes, after it killed-”

May interrupted. “The water that Melati and I are standing in front of?”

“Shit!” Melati said.

“Get out of there, now!” Coulson shouted, spinning to Skye. “If that creature knows the way out, it knows the way in.”

“We need to go and back them up,” Skye said quickly. She let go of Barbara and grabbed her backpack. “I’m sorry, we have to-”

“I understand,” Barbara said quickly. “Go.”

Skye and Coulson looked at the redhead for a moment. “No time,” Coulson said at last. “Mrs. Bannister, we’ll be seeing you as soon as possible.”

Coulson rushed out the door, Skye following right after. Coulson walked down the hallways as the doors shut on Barbara behind them, the young woman left sitting in her chair. Alone.

Down the hallway, John Daltry was speaking to a doctor. He turned to look at them, only to freeze at the sight of Coulson’s face. “What happened?”

“We know what happened,” Coulson said firmly. “But my team is in danger.”

To his credit, Daltry didn’t hesitate. He nodded and turned to leave, only for Coulson to stop him with his words to the doctor.

“I need you to make sure Mrs. Bannister doesn’t escape,” Sheriff Daltry spun around to stare at Coulson. “She is a security risk, for many reasons. Keep her under lock and key until we can get BRIDGE agents to speak with her.”

“Coulson!” Skye said, shocked. “We don’t have to do that, she’s-”

“She is a spy,” Coulson said firmly. “The fact she cooperated will help, especially if she keeps that up, but she was trading government secrets. Protocol is clear.”

Sheriff Daltry scowled, his fists tightening. “If you think-”

“We don’t have time!” Coulson said. Skye and the doctor jumped, while Daltry glared. “I want to be nice about this, I do. But right now, three of mine might be in the vicinity of a killer. I want to get to them so they have backup. So I’m sorry for being brief, but we need to get this done-”

“Okay,” Daltry cut him off. “Fine. I’ve already got Nakamura headed here to guard her. But I’m coming with you. No one knows these swamps better than me.”

Coulson smirked. “You kinda have to. You’re our ride.”

As they headed out, Octavius began to speak again. “Agent Coulson. I’ve recovered the data from after the creature escaped. There are days of nothing happening. Then, weeks later… Agent May noticed that all the soldier's gear and weapons were missing. And now we know why. They were stolen. A group of men dressed in black clothing broke into the facility, stripped the corpses and armory of their equipment, and escaped.”

Coulson and Skye shared a dark glance. Someone had stolen SHIELD weapons and armor. Weapons that, back in January, were the most advanced in the world.

“Sheriff, we may need to be more prepared than I thought,” Coulson said darkly.

Skye, in the meantime, opened her backpack.

------

Otto Octavius

Octavius watched the footage in front of him with a careful eye. On the screen, dozens of men were roaming about, stealing things from the facility. He wasn’t sure what to think about that. May and Melati were just about to come out of the facility as well, but this old footage was far more interesting than he believed. He looked from screen to screen, humming. Strange. Even as there were men inside the facility stealing, it seemed like there were more outside the place roaming towards a trailer of some sor-

Octavius was among the smartest men on Earth. So it only took a second for his brain to comprehend what was happening, that the footage of the men striding towards the trailer was currently happening and streaming from their truck’s cameras.

Then he was ripping a microphone off the desk. “May, there are men with guns outs-!”

A loud booming sound came from outside. Octavius yelped, turning to look at the doors. “MAY!”

More booming noises followed. “They’re shooting at the doors!”

------

Melinda May

May heard Octavius’ warning just before the elevator doors slid open. Her eyes widened when three men pointed guns at her. In the heartbeat, before they started shooting, she ran over her options.

The elevator was too small to hide in. The area between them and the gunmen was nothing but open ground. The men were still lifting their guns towards her. Melati hadn’t noticed yet, she’d been studying her samples. No way to run.

So May attacked.

In a massive lunge, she leaped forward. Someone fired a shotgun, but she’d moved to keep out of their line of fire. Melati hadn’t. When the sound of a bullet hitting flesh came from behind her, May forced herself not to flinch. Later. Worry later. Fight now.

She came to a stop in front of the man on the right, who had been the furthest back, then grabbed his gun and pushed it upwards. The butt of the gun slammed into his face. She pulled it back as he staggered away, spinning the gun around and pulling the guy forward as a human shield. One of his allies shot at her and his friend instead. Assault rifle rounds chewed through SHIELD-issued armor, but May was already ducking behind a tree, her stolen gun in hand as the guy she’d used as a shield fell to the swamp floor.

“Damn it!”

“Kill the bitch!”

Bullets hit the tree she hid behind, chewing through the bark flying around her head. Amateurs. May listened closely. Several different guns were firing. So there were more men than the original three she’d seen. Based on how the bark was flying past her…

She popped out of cover, aiming towards three men. With short controlled bursts, she hit all three in the gut, where the armor was slightly lacking. Blood sprayed into the air, intestines spilling forth. Then May ducked back into cover.

“Fuck me!” One of the wounded men shouted.

May pursed her lips. Damn. There were a lot of them. Most were trying to breach the truck, but she’d seen a few coming to join their friends in trying to flush her out. She needed to mov-

“Krk-krkrkrkrkrk!”

A sound came from the elevator. It sounded like… not a roar. Like a beast was growling and screaming all at once. A noise of rage and pain. It chilled May to the bones, that sound like a saw running along bones.

May poked her head out for a moment. Then she saw it. Behind one of the men. Standing tall, her scales glittering in the light, blood pouring from her stomach wound. Melati Kusama’s fangs were grinding. Her eyes glowed. The soldier she was standing behind began to turn. Melati slashed out with superhuman speed. Claws tore through armor and skin, and the man screamed.

The other men spun to point their weapons at her, but she was already moving forward and picking another man up, tossing him at the rest with that loud sound like a saw scraping and breaking bones.

“HURT!” Melati roared. Someone shot her in the shoulder. As May watched, the bullet-hole stopped bleeding mere seconds after being created. That only made Melati angrier. “HURT!”

She leaped forward, claws first. May circled the tree to shoot a few more men to back up the superhuman and heard the trailer’s back doors break open.

They were going to attack Octavius. And May couldn’t stop them.

------

Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD

Phil clutched tightly to the door handle as the sheriff’s car took the sort of drifting turn one would see in a Japanese anime. “Where’d you learn to drive like this!?”

“That wasn’t on purpose!” Daltry shouted, gunning the engine.

“I miss Lola!” Skye screamed from the back.

They were driving way over the speed limit over the back roads of the swamp, bouncing up and down as they went.

“I can slow-” Daltry began to yell.

“No!” Coulson said back. “If they’re in a firefight, we need to help. May has two non-combatants to protect, they need help!”

“Oh good,” Daltry grinned way too widely. “Cause I always wanted to do this.”

Coulson was about to ask what he meant, only to clam up when he realized what was up ahead. A hill up along the road. A hill that was perfect as a ramp in some 80’s action-comedy show.

“Oh no,” Skye whispered behind them.

They sped up the hill and up into the air. Daltry let out a very familiar whoop of ‘Yee-haw!’ Coulson’s grip on the door handle turned white. Skye let out a sound that was half-shriek, half-shout.

The sheriff’s car landed almost supernaturally perfectly on the other side and kept pushing along the roads while sending up clouds of dust.

“Eat your heart out, Duke Boys,” Daltry said. They continued for just a moment before the radio blasted forth.

“Sheriff!?” the loud sound of Nakamura’s voice dragged their attention.

Daltry ripped the mouthpiece off and handed it to Coulson. “I’m driving, talk to him.”

Coulson didn’t hesitate. “This is Phil Coulson, Daltry’s focused on driving but he can hear you. What is going on?”

“He went quiet for a bit, I wanted to ask him that,” Nakamura sounded worried. More so than necessary. “Is he, is he still helping you, folks?”

“...Yes,” Coulson said simply.

“Ah…” Nakamura let out a deep sigh. “Damn. And I guess you folks are going to help your friends in trouble near the lab.”

Daltry froze. The car began to slow. He reached over to grab the mouthpiece. “Danny… How do you know they’re in trouble?”

“Sorry, John,” Nakamura said. The radio cut out. Daltry spun the wheel around on instinct when a camo painted jeep came roaring out of the swamps down a side road. It barreled up next to them and pulled alongside. A long black tube stretched out of the side window.

“Down!” Daltry roared just before the shotgun roared. The side window shattered as they all ducked. “Fuck!”

The jeep roared, and the shotgun fired again. Coulson reached for his Lawgiver, the massive weapon almost comical in his hands. On grabbing it, he pulled it close to his face. “High Ex!”

The gun let out a loud beep. Coulson popped up from cover and aimed at the engine of the jeep, firing.

BOOM!

The engine blew outwards in a fire. The overall jeep was fine, but the grates of the engine began to blow out flames, the side of the jeep deformed. The vehicle slowed down massively. Coulson aimed again, fired at the tire.

BOOM!

The whole jeep twisted, flipping upwards onto it’s back as it’s front right tire blew apart in the middle of a high-speed chase. Daltry twisted the steering wheel away and glanced behind him as the jeep skidded on its rooftop. “Jesus Christ!”

He looked over at Coulson, who raised the Lawgiver to his face and pointed straight ahead. “Keep driving!”

Daltry looked forward again with a shake of his head. “Can’t believe I’m living in an action movie.”

“You get used to it!” Skye said from the back.

“Up ahead!” Coulson pointed ahead again.

Two beat-up old trucks, the sort that every farmer in the south had, were blocking the road. In the center was a Sheriff department jeep. And the three cars had dozens of men with guns hiding behind them.

“Jesus H. Christ,” Daltry growled, rolling the car to a stop.

“Looks like Deputy Nakamura wants a conversation,” Coulson couldn’t help but quip.

In the distance, just barely visible to them, they could see Daniel Nakamura, carrying an assault rifle and wearing armor over his uniform. He was lifting a loudspeaker to his lips.

“John!” he shouted into the loudspeaker. “John! We don’t want to hurt you. We just want the agents. If you let us take them, we’ll let you go. I’ll even cut you in on all this.”

John, in answer, ripped the mouthpiece off the radio and yelled into it. “Damn it, Danny, what the hell have you been doing!? You stole government weapons!”

Danny chuckled into the loudspeaker. “Come on, John. We get paid less for our job then guys who bang rocks into other rocks. You gonna blame me for selling a few grenades?”

“We all wanted a better life, John!” one of the other men said. “You can’t blame us for that.”

John pulled away from the mouthpiece and grumbled to himself. “I can if you start firing a damn shotgun at me.”

“Okay, this is dumb,” Coulson said, turning to look at Daltry. Nakamura kept speaking as Coulson ignored him. “Sheriff. I’m not sure how much Deputy Nakamura has done. But he’s currently threatening our lives. He’s trying to kill me and Skye-”

“Damn you,” Daltry whispered, his voice raw. He looked at Coulson. His eyes were shaking. For a moment, Coulson was worried he was going to attack him. Then Daltry lifted the mouthpiece to his lips. “Danny… I wish you hadn’t done this. If you give up, we can speak to a judge. But if you don’t-”

“Don’t be stupid, John!” Nakamura crowed into the loudspeaker. “I have twenty guys with me, all armed with SHIELD’s best guns. What do you have!?”

“...They aren’t called SHIELD anymore,” John said sadly. “And those weapons you have are outdated now.”

“That’s my cue,” Skye said with a grim smile, lifting her hands to place something on her head. She kicked her door open and stepped outside. As she stood in the light, it was easy to see what she was wearing.

Skye stood tall in a black chest piece of armor that glowed with green lines. A pair of black gauntlets rested on each arm, covering her from fingertips to elbow. A helmet came around her face to wrap around her head completely. She raised a hand, the center of her palm glowing with a purple light before firing.

A plasma blast split the air, slamming into one of the trucks and sending it sliding back a couple of feet. The blast also melted a hole through the metal, dripping molten steel on the floor.

“HOLY FUCK!” Nakamura yelped, ducking back.

“Come on!” Coulson yelled at John. “She’ll need back up!”

“On it!”

Coulson grinned when John, unfazed by the armor-wearing young woman currently firing plasma bolts. Instead, he reached behind him, pulled a shotgun out, and spun out of the car, moving behind the car while Skye kept shooting. Coulson joined him, and together the pair raised their guns. Daltry looked from his shotgun to Coulson’s Lawbringer.

“Don’t suppose you have another one?” Daltry asked, popping out of cover to fire towards the men and women currently hiding behind their trucks.

“One of a kind, sorry! ICER!” the gun beeped as Coulson spun out of cover and fired the Lawgiver. One of the men was shot in the shoulder and immediately passed out. That was the beauty of ICER’s. Hit someone anywhere and they would always go down, as opposed to just fighting through the pain of a bullet hole.

John popped up as well and fired, his shotgun bucking in his hands. Danny shouted.

“DID YOU JUST SHOOT AT ME!?” the deputy shouted over the loudspeaker.

John shot again, getting a loud yelp. He was forced to duck down when some bullets hit the car near him, a line of holes running along the trunk and shattering the back window. Skye stood behind the car door and kept shooting palmfuls of plasma, the powerful blasts eating through steel and rubber.

“If they aren’t being stupid, they’ll try to flank us,” Coulson shouted, spinning to his feet to fire again. He missed but caught sight of the back of Skye’s hands opening up to reveal two small tubes. She aimed and fired, catching one of the women in the stomach with an ICER round. As that woman passed out, she fired again and again, only to switch to plasma when a few men began to move to flank. Skye fired the plasma rounds into the ground in front of them, sending dust and swamp water exploding upwards and driving the men back.

“She’s good at this,” John said to himself.

Even in the heat of battle, Coulson had a moment to agree with the sheriff. Then he rose and kept shooting. “May, we’ve been delayed! What’s going on in your end?”

------

Otto Octavius

Otto was terrified. The doors of the trailer were buckling inwards, the entire thing shaking around him. He was desperately running around the lab, trying to figure out a way to escape. The men outside would break in soon enough. He would need to find a way to get out of the trailer.

He looked at the screens displaying what the cameras outside were seeing. The men outside were fighting May and Melati. His fellow scientist kicked one man in the chest, sending him flying back to crash into a tree with bone-crushing force.

Otto knew that Melati had gained a slew of powers due to her transformation. The young scientist could now lift just over half a ton, move as fast as Captain America, heal wounds at impressive speed, and had obtained the natural weaponry of claws and teeth. However, he had never considered her a ‘fighter’. For all her fearsome appearance, she was a scientist first and foremost.

Now though, she let out a sound Otto could hear through the trailer's walls. Like a chainsaw running along bone. One of the women attempting to attack them shot her in the chest. Melati roared again and attacked that woman. The black-armored woman shot her again with a pistol, then Melati sliced outwards with animal ferocity. Claws tore across the woman's face. She screamed audibly as four red gashes blossomed on her face. Melati picked up the woman and tossed her back, sending her into the treetops. Another person tried to attack Melati from behind, only for Melati’s tail to lash out in a vicious blow to the man’s face, sending him tumbling.

More people tried to surround Melati. May made that impossible. The agent was flitting through the trees like a shadow. Even with the aid of the cameras, Otto could barely make her out. Until one man was shot in the right kneecap, tumbling to the ground in agony. A woman was hit in the throat, collapsing in a spray of blood. The rest pulled back into cover when another spray of suppressing fire came from May. The man May had shot in the kneecap tried to crawl away. An enraged Melati punched him as he lay on the ground.

But more men were still trying to break in, even as May and Melati distracted the rest.

The trailer shook. Otto closed his eyes for just a second to run things down in his head. This was a problem. He needed a solution. Just like all things, knowledge and intelligence would carry him through it. One of the finest minds on the Earth ran down the facts at incredible speeds.

There had been twenty-three men and women when all the people on the screens had first appeared. Three men had been initially defeated by May and Melati. Then one woman tossed into the trees, one man knocked out by a tail swipe, one woman shot in the throat, one man knocked out. Three men were trying to break into the trailer. The rest, thirteen, were focused on Melati and May.

So help wasn’t coming. In his brief time in the trailer, Otto hadn’t managed to learn about any weapons. While he had obtained some basic weapons training as part of his induction into BRIDGE, he didn’t carry a pistol as a matter of course. So he would need to improvise.

Strange. His mind had quickly turned from flight to fight. The instinct of the body to turn to attack when all other resources failed, perhaps?

Otto moved even as he mused on that idea. Quickly, he began to search the shelves of the lab. Weapons, weapons, a way to fight back.

“Chemicals,” Otto mumbled. He grabbed a small package and read the word along the side. cesium.

The label also had dozens of warnings, and the package had been surrounded by foam, with several other safety features in place to protect the material. No need to be complex about his improvisation. Simplicity is the weapon of the desperate after all.

He placed the package on a counter, took a portion of the soft metal out of the protective packaging and carefully put it into a half-liter glass bottle which had two compartments. The cesium filled one of those compartments about halfway. He took care to grab another chemical, one that would make for a very volatile reaction on top of the cesium. Then he ran to a nearby fridge, pulling out a clear glass bottle filled with chilled water. As he did, he sighted his main project. It sat on a cart, ready to be worked on. For a heart-stopping moment, he froze.

His mind warred with itself. His project was one of hope. One to aid those who had nowhere to turn. Not a weapon of war, but a tool to make the world better. His desperation and logical mindset fought against romanticism.

The trailer shook again. Desperation won.

Otto grabbed his main project’s cart and pushed it into the conference room, just behind the door. Then he rushed out to the cesium resting on the counter, grabbing the water as well and pouring the cold water very carefully into the glass bottle with the cesium, very carefully keeping the water and cesium separated, as well as the third chemical.

KABOOM!

The doors imploded inwards. Otto shouted in surprise and pain as he stumbled back, his ears ringing horribly.

“We’re in!” one of the men shouted. “Grab that guy, now!”

Grab. Not kill. They wanted to take him hostage. To use him to force Melati and May to concede.

Unacceptable.

Something within Otto clenched at his chest. It was bitter. Angry. For a moment, he felt his heartbeat in his ears, booming. Someone entered the trailer. One of the soldiers. He was a big man, overweight, but muscular under the fat. He had black armor on. Despite how advanced the armor looked, it was also ill-fitting, slabs of fat poking out around the straps. Of course, it was ill-fitting. It was stolen.

As was the shotgun in his hand.

Otto stared at the man. The man glared at him and barked. “Come here you little shit!”

The words. They triggered a memory immediately. “Come here you little shit!”

As the man stepped forward, Otto wasn’t seeing a soldier in black armor.

He saw his father.

Fear, anger, and old heartache filled him. And the urge to hurt someone flowed in Otto Octavius like blood in the veins. He tossed the cesium/water/undisclosed filled bottle at the man while jumping back with a loud shout. The man shouted in response, raising his arm to block the bottle. The glass shattered on his arm. Three chemicals mixed in the air as the glass shattered. The cesium reacted as it met the water. For a heart-stopping moment, nothing happened. Just a wet and angry man carrying a shotgun. Then the cesium exploded on the man’s skin. Flesh and skin shredded apart. The man screamed. The third chemical reacted as the explosion hit it, blowing up as well. The man was sent flying out of the hole he’d created in the truck, falling on the swampy ground outside screaming.

Otto didn’t stop to watch. He was running already, even as someone behind him shouted ‘FUCK!’

He entered the section of the trailer that contained the conference table, where he’d wheeled in his personal project. Working quickly, he grabbed a glove off the cart the project was on, placing it hurriedly on his right hand. He hesitantly turned on the battery underneath the cart. After a few motions with his right hand, he winced. Not as dexterous as he would have wanted. But then, that was okay. He didn’t need precision. Just power. He got as far from the door as he could.

The loud sound of someone running towards him sent a jolt of fear through Otto. He clenched an untrained fist. A woman rushed into the room. Otto swung his fist in a clumsy punch, his back and abdomen screaming in pain, followed by his shoulder.

His project moved. Made of black metal and plastic, shaped roughly like a human arm attached at the shoulder to a pole. The arm had several wires running from the pole to the cart, to it. When Otto punched, it was almost hilariously slow, but the robotic arm on the cart moved the instant he did, commanded by the motion-capture glove he was wearing. Electric signals flowed through the air to force the arm to move. With far more speed and power.

A mechanical fist smashed into the woman’s stomach with a horrendous smack. She let out a loud gurgle of pain, her finger reflexively pulling the trigger on her gun. Otto screamed in pain when a bullet hit him in the shoulder. The feeling of a hot knife slicing through skin and flesh was unbearable. He reflexively lashed out. The mechanical arm whined as it snapped upwards, smashing into the woman’s chin with a sickening crack. Otto fell back, blood streaming down his arm.

“Confound you!” Otto shouted as he landed on his back. “Oh god!”

He stared at his wound. Good lord. He could see into himself. A great gaping hole, with flesh opened to the air. The feeling of hot blades in his shoulder made him want to scream.

“You!” someone shouted, drawing Otto’s attention. He looked up at the man who entered, stepping over the unconscious form of the woman he’d punched with his project on prosthetics technologies. “You piece of shit!”

The man spoke with a Southern accent and wore a trucker hat. He was also carrying a shotgun. He had mud-green eyes that were wide with rage. “I’m going to kill you!”

Otto desperately waved his arm, screaming as he did so. The prosthetic project spun around to hit the man. The man blocked it on his forearm, then kicked the cart, sending Otto’s project sprawling onto the ground.

Otto tried to think of a way out. But he’d run out of options. Exhausted everything. As he stood there, staring at the man who stalked towards him, fear flooded his body.

And then, the screaming began. Not from Otto. From outside the trailer.

Otto and the man looked at the screens in the conference room, which showed what the cameras outside were picking up. And both stopped to stare.

------

Melinda May

May rolled to get behind a tree, then spun out of cover as bullets hit where she had been. She fired back at the attackers, then swept out the legs of one of them when they approached, punching him in the face when he tried to stab her with a knife. Nine people left to fight. If it wasn’t for Melati, May would have had much more trouble. But the reptilian woman had lost any semblance of humanity. She was screaming in rage, her eyes blackened in fury. May raised her gun.

Then someone screamed. Not like the shouts of rage or pain that had been filling the air. This one was a screech.

May ducked behind a tree and poked her head out in the direction of the scream. Then she froze.

One of the soldiers was shooting in the direction of the swamp. And striding towards them, was the creature.

Eight feet tall, walked through the swamp with red eyes set firmly forward. There was something surreal about the sight of the creature in the daylight. The sun shone upon emerald arms as they swung back and forth. Its body was soaked in water and the swamps at its feet seemed to part in front of it. It didn’t make a sound.

But when the soldier that was shooting it screamed, red eyes snapped to land on him. May’s own eyes widened. And the creature shifted it’s path. And suddenly, Melati was no longer the focus of attention.

The soldiers kept shooting at the green creature, attempting to destroy it. Bullets passed through it, spurts of green ejecting out it’s back with every shot. It didn’t care. Its eyes were on the soldier who’d screamed. The soldier who was slowly backing away, his eyes wide, his small red beard shaking as he quivered. The eight other soldiers weren’t as frozen. Three ran to fight Melati, who snarled even as she had her stomach shot out. Two more stayed with the scared solder. The rest rushed the creature, switching their guns for melee weapons. May, not missing her chance, reloaded her stolen assault rifle in the meantime, ignoring the soldiers fighting the creature to aid Melati.

As the two men ran towards the creature, one of them yelled a battle cry, lifting a machete high. He sliced the creature's right arm off in a vicious attack, sending the limb bouncing onto the ground. The man let out a victorious cry.

The creature didn’t spare a glance. It kept moving. The right arm it had lost sank into the swamp. And as they watched, it grew its arm back. At incredible speeds, branches, mud, and leaves flowed to reform its limb. The second attacker stabbed the creature in the chest. The creature took a long knife into its form, then swept out a still reforming right arm to send the second man flying. The first man roared, slicing and dicing at the creature. Then, as his actions were proven to be futile. His eyes widened. He let out a gasp. A flash of fear crossed his face. He reared back to attack again.

And the creature, in a smooth motion, reached out and grabbed the soldier’s face. The man screamed, his machete stabbing the creature’s stomach. Red eyes turned slowly, like spotlights landing on a nervous actor on a stage. Then, smoke rose from the man's face. And his scream became something horrid. His face began to melt under the creature’s grip, he was lifted into the air to kick and scream in fear.

Everyone stopped fighting. May, Melati, the soldiers, all stared at the monster. And it’s red eyes turned to look at them, as the man in his hands stopped moving.

“May, we’ve been delayed! What’s going on in your end?” Coulson said then.

“Coulson,” May said. “That thing is back.”

“...May. It’s drawn to fear.”

May understood without anything else. She hid behind a tree and closed her eyes. Despite what some thought, May could feel fear. Fear was useful. It made sure to keep one alive, to warn of danger. But it had to be controlled. To keep it from paralyzing you. She usually kept that balance. A hint of fear to make sure she never lost what had kept her alive.

She forced that down now. After her encounter with the Berserker Staff when she had to push back a lifetime of rage fueled by ancient alien magic, she found it easier to control the petty emotions of a human being.

The others in the area weren’t so lucky. Melati, at least, had calmed down from the rampaging anger that had enveloped her from the start. Instead, she was panting in the center of the clearing, crouched low, her claws held out. She looked like an animal. Her clothes had been ripped to shreds, blood dripping from her fingers, and breath coming out in great gasps that sounded almost like ragged roars.

The creature swiped out a hand, grabbing his other attacker around his right hand. The man screamed as his fist melted under the creatures' grip. The man tried to push the creature away with his other hand, only for the hand that met the monster's body to begin to burn. Bone started to show under the skin and flesh. May felt a flash of pity. Then she moved slightly out of cover and shot that man in the head.

The creature didn’t flinch when the man who had been screaming in his grasp collapsed wordlessly. It simply let the man’s corpse fall. And it focused it’s red eyes on the soldiers.

But May and Melati were already getting to work. As the creature strode towards the soldiers, May shot a woman in the stomach, then the neck. The other soldiers turned to aim at her. Melati struck the three men who had gone to attack her. Leaping dozens of feet forward, she landed feet first on one man’s back, then swiped her tail out at another, sending that soldier flying into a nearby tree. The last of the three shot Melati in the leg. She grabbed him and tossed him several feet into the air, where he smashed into a tree with a nasty thud.

Then the creature got to the last two soldiers. May raised her gun, but the monster was already reaching out. One of the soldiers screamed. His mouth was grabbed by the creature. Another soldier tried to run. She was snatched by the back of her neck.

May lowered her gun, staring as the two soldiers died more horribly than she had seen in a long time.

“...Is it… On our side?” Melati growled in the back of her throat.

“I don’t think it has a side,” May mumbled.

“Don’t move!” The creature, Melati, and May looked at the trailer. A single soldier was coming out of the trailer. And he was holding Otto by the neck, a shotgun held to his back.

The older man was bleeding freely from his shoulder, already looking pale. He stared at them, before his eyes landed on the creature. His eyes widened. “Fascinating… absolutely fascinating.”

“Shut the fuck up!” the soldier shouted. He released Otto’s neck to slam a fist into the back of his head. Otto screamed in pain, and the soldier grabbed him again. “You’re going to let me go, got it! You and your band of freaks! Or I’m killing the fatass!”

May clenched at her rifle, watching the man carefully. Melati growled.

The creature took a slow step forward.

“H-Hey, back the fuck off!” the soldier shouted, staring at the creature. “T-Tell this thing to back off or I’ll kill this guy!”

“He’s not on our side,” May said softly. “It’s not on anyone's side. And it’s not going to listen to me.”

The soldier stared at her. Then he turned to run.

May shot him in the back of the head.

“Dear God!” Otto fell to his knees, clutching at his shoulder. “Dear god! That was…”

They all noticed it at the same time. That the creature hadn’t stopped moving. It stepped towards Otto. Red eyes glowed.

“Hey, get away from him!” Melati screamed, leaping towards the creature.

A green-leafed arm smacked her aside, sending her flying.

“Melati!” Otto cried out in horror. Then he stared at the creature. “May, what-”

“It’s drawn to fear,” May rushed up next to Otto, kneeling next to him as they watched the creature. “Coulson told me. That’s why it attacked the soldiers. It kills people who are afraid of it! Dr. Octavius, you need to keep calm!”

Otto was breathing hard, his eyes wide. The creature reached out. “Fear, fear, I-I need,” he swallowed. “The antithesis of fear is knowledge… How does it sense fear?” His voice was shaky. “It is made of some sort of plant-life, so it must have some way of interacting with its environment, of sensing fear using some sort of- oh god!”

The creature's hand reached out, fingers scraping along Otto’s left hand. May pulled him up and back, physically pulling him into the trailer. “Come on, Doctor!”

Behind them, the blown-up doors of the trailer were snapped out, and the creature followed. The trailer shook as hundreds of pounds of monster strode in.

May pulled Otto through the lab, past the bodies of those he’d beaten. As she did, Otto continued to bleed. He spoke to himself.

“Logic Otto. Logic, come on,” he shouted in pain when May sat him down in a chair in the conference room. She ran up to the front of the trailer and worked at the keypad. After some quick presses, the door opened, revealing the driver’s area. She pressed a sidewall and a panel opened, revealing several small weapons. “Oh, well, that would have been nice to know about!” Otto screamed.

“We didn’t have time to go over everything,” May explained. She grabbed a flare gun and some rounds, then spun to face the door as Otto rolled to a stop next to her. “Will this work?”

“I don’t believe so,” Otto said, his voice shaky as he clutched at his bloody shoulder. His left hand had stopped smoking where the creature had touched him. “I need to calm myself… This creature, did Coulson have any explanation for it?”

“No,” May said. Just then, the creature was standing in the door. She fired a flare round into its face. The fire burned in the creature's chest. It didn’t seem to care. “Damn it,” May fired another round, then ran back into the cabin.

“Anyone would assume that Ted Sallis and the super-soldier serum being poured into the swamp would have made this, this swamp thing,” Otto said. For some reason, May thought that ‘swamp thing’ just sounded wrong as the creature's name. “But that makes no sense,” he furrowed his brow at the creature. Slowly, he spoke. “Your form… I have seen Swampfire do similar things. But he is an alien. A being born from a completely different world. How could a human, a man… but it is possible,” Otto stopped shaking. “The Hulk. Fantasma, Thor, Dial, Abomination. So many wonders in the modern world of man.”

May came out of the trailer, carrying a grenade. Then she stopped.

The creature had stilled. It was staring at Otto.

“With so many monsters and wonders, I suppose that it is not natural for a scientist to claim anything is impossible,” Otto whispered. Behind the creature, Melati rushed in. May hurriedly waved at the reptile woman to stop before she could leap at the monster. Melati did so. Otto kept speaking. “So. It is not a matter of, ‘this is impossible’. It is a matter of, ‘what are the rules’... What, my fascinating friend, are the rules that make you what you are?”

The creature stared a moment longer.

“...Is it broken?” Melati asked.

As though signaled by that, it walked forward. May watched, controlling herself, as the monster's hand reached out for Otto once more. It touched the back of his left hand, still smoking. And Otto let out a surprised gasp of relief as the creature's touch left a bubbling foam.

Then, slowly, it turned and began to walk out of the trailer.

“I…” Otto stared at it’s back. “Agent May.”

“Yeah?” May asked, exhaustion hitting her just then.

“I believe I’d like to get medical attention now,” Otto whispered. Then he passed out.

And the monster walked off into the swamp.

------

Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD

“They’re almost done!” Daltry shouted as the fighting continued. He fired his shotgun at one man, then caught a haymaker from a large woman on his right arm.

SMACK!

With a right cross worthy of the classic Westerns Coulson had seen in his youth, Daltry punched the woman in the face, knocking her flat on her back. A man tried to stab Daltry. The sheriff blocked the stab on his shotgun, then kicked the man in between the legs. His opponent's eyes crossed before Daltry laid him out with another hard punch.

“Anyone tell you that you look like Clint Eastwood when ya fight?” Coulson quipped, firing an ICER shot that brought someone else down.

“I’ve always been told I was pretty,” Daltry said. Then he grinned. “But yeah.”

A man landed on his back next to them. The man tried to scramble to his feet, only to get a boot to the face. Skye grinned at Daltry and Coulson. “You two are so cute.”

All around them, the bodies of Nakamura’s men lay. Some were dead. Most were knocked out, ICER’s allowing them to drop the death toll significantly. Daltry looked around, panting. He had scrapes on his face, his jacket discarded. Coulson’s suit was covered in dust and blood. Skye’s armor had been similarly damaged despite it’s enhanced durability.

Daltry, despite his exhaustion, still looked fierce and angry. “...Where’s Danny?”

Skye frowned, looking around. Coulson did the same. Then he saw Danny.

The man was lying in the dirt behind one of the trucks. He’d been hit in the leg and was crawling away. A trail of blood was leading from where he’d originally fallen. He’d gotten pretty far.

Before he could say anything, Daltry saw the deputy as well. Growling, Daltry began to walk forward.

“Joh-”

“Don’t,” Daltry snarled at Coulson. He kept striding forward. “This part… It’s something I have to do.”

Skye and Coulson shared a look. Neither said anything. Daltry was soon at Danny. The deputy, realizing he’d been caught, spun onto his back and tried to raise his gun at Daltry.

Daltry stomped down on his arm.

“Aaaaaagh!” Danny screamed.

“Enough,” Daltry smirked. “Danny. I always liked you. But you know how I feel about chances… You get one,” Danny snarled, trying to reach for his belt for another gun. In a lightning-fast move, Daltry’s revolver was in his hand. A .44, a massive gun that shone in the light like a sword in the hand of a knight. The barrel was pointed at Danny’s nose. He froze. “Danny. You’ve been stupid. Stupid enough to steal from the government. The branch of the government that deals with superheroes for fuck's sake. You were stupid enough to attack me, and their agents. You’re already under arrest, Danny. Everything you say will be held against you in a court of law.”

Daltry cocked back the hammer of his revolver. The gun seemed to vibrate. Danny’s sweat was making his face shiny. “You tried to kill super-agents, Danny. You’ve been stupid for months…” The gun was massive. “Don’t be stupid now.”

“...”

Danny slowly laid back. Daltry looked up at Coulson. “If y’all have people to take care of things like this. Might be a good time to get them.”

“Badass,” Skye whispered nearby.

Coulson chuckled, then brought a hand to his ear. “May?”

“We’re okay, Coulson. But we’ve got a hell of a story to tell you,” she said softly.